Closer to war

[George.]

The Russian government has sent operatives into eastern Ukraine in preparation for potential sabotage operations that would serve as a pretext for invasion, the Biden administration said on Friday.


“We have information that indicates Russia has already prepositioned a group of operatives to conduct a false-flag operation in eastern Ukraine,” a U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity under ground rules established by the Biden administration, said in an email. “The operatives are trained in urban warfare and in using explosives to carry out acts of sabotage against Russia’s own proxy-forces.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/russia-ukraine-invasion-sabotage-operations/2022/01/14/769314a2-754f-11ec-8ec6-9d61f7afbe17_story.html?itid=hp_most-read_4

They already stonewalled at the "talks" this week and are carrying out a cyber attack on Ukraine. It does look like they are building a pretext for war.

[LeeG]

Re: Closer to war

https://www.washingtonpost.com/natio...hp_most-read_4

They already stonewalled at the "talks" this week and are carrying out a cyber attack on Ukraine. It does look like they are building a pretext for war.

The US or Russia?

[ERGR]

Re: Closer to war

Russia is the aggressor. They're essentially demanding a new Molotov - Ribbentrop pact, where smaller sovereign states are ignored. Their problem is that no one wants to play the Ribbentrop role. Maybe we've learned from history.
/Erik

[WX]

Re: Closer to war

Russia wants the Ukrainian breadbasket back.

[Garret]

Re: Closer to war

Russia wants the Ukrainian breadbasket back.

And to prevent the spread of NATO.

[Dave Hadfield]

Re: Closer to war

Stalin would consider this a very simple decision.

[Dan McCosh]

Re: Closer to war

This is starting to look more like the start of WWl, rather than WWII.

[George.]

Re: Closer to war

Perhaps a grand bargain could be struck. Russia gets to keep Crimea and backs off the rest of Ukraine. Something like that could hold for a while.

[willmarsh3]

Re: Closer to war

If they take Ukraine they will get Chernobyl in the deal. What a deal that would be.

[CollinR]

Re: Closer to war

George,

We tried appeasement in 1939. It didn't work then and it won't work now.

Dwedais "Gwirion", Nid "Twp"

[George.]

Re: Closer to war

Crimea was, and still is, Russian. Not really comparable to 1938, which I think you meant.

[Mitziel]

Crimea was, and still is, Russian.

Was and is, yes, but only since snaffling it a little over 200 years ago. Which, to be fair, is about when the poms snaffled Australia.

Sent from my MI MAX 3 using Tapatalk

[TomF]

Re: Closer to war

Putin is following the grand tradition of using foreign aggressive policy to deal with domestic dissent. He doesn't want to be Stalin, he wants to be a century or two earlier.

[George.]

Re: Closer to war

Was and is, yes, but only since snaffling it a little over 200 years ago. Which, to be fair, is about when the poms snaffled Australia.

Russia took Crimea from the Ottoman Empire, which has not existed for over 100 years so can't have it back. It was the culmination of a national project to reach the Black Sea. They fought the West for it, such as it was back then, in the Crimean War. They finally got their warm water port at Sevastopol, and could be expected to fight to keep it tooth and nail.

It is not like Oz to Britain. It is more like Hawaii to the US.

When Ukraine flirted with joining NATO and the EU, it was unfortunately predictable that Russia might want to undo Khrushchev's impetuous, and at the time irrelevant, gift to Ukraine.

[Andrew Craig-Bennett]

Re: Closer to war

I don’t, myself, think that 100,000 men is anything like enough to invade Ukraine with.

I’m not a military man, so I may be mistaken, but see here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armed_Forces_of_Ukraine