World leaders scramble to avoid war in Ukraine amid confusion over bid to join NATO
In call, Biden tells Putin US and allies will respond ‘decisively’ if Russia invades Ukraine -
US officials are warning Russia could launch an invasion of Ukraine as soon as this week but are still holding out hope that diplomacy can prevail.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced the US is closing its embassy in Kyiv and relocating remaining diplomatic personnel to the western city of Lviv.
President Biden spoke with Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky over the weekend but there were no major breakthroughs. Germany’s chancellor met with Zelensky in Kyiv today in ongoing de-escalation efforts.
Doesn’t this sound like the days of Chamberlain’s appeasement?
A world on edge awaits Putin’s critical move
US says Russia plans to manufacture justification for war
By Jeremy Herb, Veronica Stracqualursi, Kylie Atwood and Ellie Kaufman, CNN
Updated 1:11 PM EST, Thu February 17, 2022
From the NYT:
[b]"Vladimir Putin: Crafty Strategist or Aggrieved and Reckless Leader?
Analysts puzzling over the Russian leader’s intentions say that his troop buildup around Ukraine could be a convincing bluff, but also posit that he could have fundamentally changed during the pandemic."
"MOSCOW — At this moment of crescendo for the Ukraine crisis, it all comes down to what kind of leader President Vladimir V. Putin is.
In Moscow, many analysts remain convinced that the Russian president is essentially rational, and that the risks of invading Ukraine would be so great that his huge troop buildup makes sense only as a very convincing bluff. But some also leave the door open to the idea that he has fundamentally changed amid the pandemic, a shift that may have left him more paranoid, more aggrieved and more reckless."[/b]
See, I told you.
Only this guy has access to a zillion nuclear bombs.
Then this take from David Brooks…
[b]"In the early 1990s I was a roving correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, based in Europe. Some years it felt as if all I did was cover good news: the end of the Soviet Union, Ukrainians voting for independence, German reunification, the spread of democracy across Eastern Europe, Mandela coming out of prison and the end of apartheid, the Oslo peace process that seemed to bring stability to the Middle East.
I obsess about those years now. I obsess about them because the good times did not last. History is reverting toward barbarism. We have an authoritarian strongman in Russia threatening to invade his neighbor, an increasingly authoritarian China waging genocide on its people and threatening Taiwan, cyberattacks undermining the world order, democracy in retreat worldwide, thuggish populists across the West undermining nations from within.
What the hell happened? Why were the hopes of the 1990s not realized? What is the key factor that has made the 21st century so dark, regressive and dangerous?"[/b]
Pick one:
1] the moral and political objectivists
2] the moral and political nihilists
3] the pinheads
"The latest on the Ukraine-Russia border crisis
By Tara John, Adrienne Vogt and Melissa Macaya, CNN
Updated 6:15 p.m. ET, February 18, 2022
What we’re covering today
US President Joe Biden said he’s “convinced” Russian President Vladimir Putin has decided to invade Ukraine, but he noted that diplomacy is not yet off the table.
The President’s comments come as the White House blames Russia for recent cyberattacks against Ukraine and a new “bleak” US intel assessment indicates that Russia is continuing preparations to invade.
The US secretary of state warned the UN that Russia is planning to manufacture a justification for an attack.
Officials say violation of the ceasefire in eastern Ukraine continued through Friday. It comes after Ukrainian armed forces and separatists controlling parts of eastern Ukraine reported renewed shelling in the Donbas region on Thursday, where video and images confirmed by CNN show that a kindergarten was hit by a shell."
"London(CNN)As the world watches and waits nervously to learn if Russian President Vladimir Putin will instruct his forces to invade Ukraine, European diplomats are privately finding one small silver lining to the crisis unfolding in Eastern Europe.
The European Union and NATO have been remarkably united during this entire episode, which months ago was in no way a certainty.
Behind the scenes, diplomats, NATO sources and EU officials have praised the “unprecedented levels of unity and coordination” which has “strengthened the transatlantic alliance” as both institutions have worked in lockstep with each other and the US, as one EU official put it.
A senior European diplomat working in NATO said they had been “really surprised but thankful” at the regular contact and cooperation between leaderships of both the EU and NATO which has allowed the messaging directed at Moscow to be “coordinated and consistent at the highest diplomatic level, despite the cultural and geographical differences of all the stakeholders.”
While the two institutions should on paper be natural partners, this level of unity was never certain. Relations between the two Brussels-based bodies have been strained in recent years. A particular low came in 2019, when President Emmanuel Macron of France – the EU’s biggest military power since the departure of the UK – said that what “we are currently experiencing is the brain death of NATO,” arguing that Europe needed to start thinking of itself as a strategic, geopolitical power."
"President Biden’s announcement on Friday that he was “convinced” Russian President Vladimir Putin had “made the decision” to invade Ukraine was reportedly based on U.S. intelligence that indicated the Kremlin ordered Russian military units to move forward with an invasion of Ukraine, according to multiple reports.
The New York Times and CNN, citing U.S. officials and various sources, reported on Sunday that the U.S. obtained intelligence last week illustrating that the Kremlin had ordered the Russian military to proceed with an invasion of Ukraine, which prompted Biden’s statement that he was convinced Putin had made the decision to launch an incursion.
The Kremlin’s order, however, is not permanent, according to CBS News. A U.S. official told the network that Putin can still change the directive.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken emphasized on Sunday that the U.S. believes Putin “has made the decision” to invade Ukraine, but emphasized that a diplomatic path forward will remain an option until the last possible minute."
Vice Prez Jarris:
"Vice President Harris warned on Sunday that the world is looking at “the real possibility of war in Europe” and said that the U.S. may “incur some cost” if Russia invades Ukraine.
“It’s been over 70 years … as I mentioned yesterday, there has been peace and security. We are talking about the real possibility of war in Europe,” Harris told reporters at the Munich Security Conference.
Harris stated, however, that the Biden administration still believes that a “diplomatic end to this moment” would be in the best interest of all parties.
Harris was asked what Americans should be prepared for if war breaks out in Europe.
“When America stands for principles, and all of the things that we hold dear,” Harris replied, “it requires sometimes for us to put ourselves out there in a way that maybe we will incur some cost and in this situation, that may relate to energy costs, for example, but we are taking very specific and appropriate, I believe, steps to mitigate what that cost might be if it happens.”
Harris also seemingly responded to calls that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made for preemptive sanctions to be issued against Russia.
“We don’t need your sanctions after the bombardment will happen, and after our country will be fired at or after we will have no borders or after we will have no economy or parts of our country will be occupied,” Zelensky said at the Munich conference. “Why would we need those sanctions then?”
"Europe stands on the brink of war. The biggest conflagration since 1945 is now an all-too-real prospect. For many people, this seems incredible. How did we come to this? Are the terrible lessons of the Nazi era, of the Cold War invasions of Hungary and Czechoslovakia, of Bosnia, Kosovo and of previous suppressions of free peoples by tyrannical leaders all now forgotten? Hopefully not. And yet history, confounding reason, appears set to repeat itself.
As this dread maelstrom spins, the US, Britain and the Nato allies are united in three key respects. First, their intelligence services agree Russia has sufficient military capability around Ukraine’s borders to mount a full-scale invasion, seize the capital, Kyiv, and force a change of government that better suits Moscow’s interests. US president Joe Biden suggests an attack could come as early as Wednesday. Second, the western powers are unanimous in blaming this desperate situation on Russia’s president. Vladimir Putin, and only Vladimir Putin, they believe, will decide if, when, where and how an invasion takes place. At this point (and contrary to what Biden told the allies), it’s unclear whether Putin has made a final decision. This is crucial. It means he may yet be dissuaded. It also means he, pre-eminently, will be to blame if the worst happens.
Third, the 30 Nato countries all agree they will not directly intervene militarily to assist Ukraine. This controversial stance is certain to be re-examined endlessly, whatever happens in the coming days. Ukraine is not a Nato member. There is no legal obligation to help. No one (or almost no one) wants a third world war, as a slightly panicked Biden put it last week. Yet the possibility of being obliged to look on impotently as a young, newly independent, sovereign democracy with an inalienable right to choose its friends and alliances is trampled underfoot sickens the stomach. If this is indeed the outcome, the consequences will be far-reaching. What is the western alliance for, many will ask, if not to defend freedom against unprovoked aggression?
Such inquests are unavoidable and necessary – but will have to await events. Right now, a number of pressing priorities arise. Given the pessimistic intelligence evaluations concerning Putin’s intentions, it is imperative the government move with the utmost urgency to ensure the safe evacuation of British citizens (and non-combatant military personnel and diplomats). In this respect, the Foreign Office has particular responsibility.
It is imperative the government move with the utmost urgency to ensure the safe evacuation of British citizens
There must be no repeat of the chaos that surrounded last year’s withdrawal from Afghanistan, when hundreds of Afghans and dual nationals who had every right to expect assistance from Britain were abandoned to the Taliban. As revealed by the Observer, thousands of emails pleading for help went unanswered as the Foreign Office was overwhelmed. This must not happen again. It’s not enough simply to advise Britons to leave. Emergency evacuation flights should be laid on as necessary.
Coordinated western diplomatic efforts must also be stepped up to persuade Russia to back off. Biden’s phone call with Putin on Saturday should be swiftly followed up. Emmanuel Macron, France’s president, is best placed to do so. When he met Putin in Moscow last week they discussed how to settle some of the main areas of dispute, such as the future status of the eastern Donbas region. Macron should be encouraged to spearhead a diplomatic drive to avert disaster.
If diplomacy is to succeed, it must have the full backing not only of the UN but of all of Nato’s leaders. That includes Boris Johnson, who has been outspoken in threatening Russia but has had little to say by way of constructive solutions. Much the same may be said of Britain’s foreign secretary, Liz Truss, whose disastrous diplomatic debut in Moscow last week may have made matters worse. In casting himself as a Churchillian wartime leader at a pivotal moment in world affairs, the prime minister evidently hopes to distract public attention from the police investigation into lockdown partying in Downing Street. This is a vain hope. Johnson has been a marginal figure on the international stage as the Ukraine crisis has unfolded, accurately reflecting post-Brexit Britain’s diminished influence. If he thinks the embattled streets of Kyiv offer him an escape route, he is mistaken.
It is of paramount importance, too, that Putin is forcefully reminded of the severe economic consequences Russia will face if he ignores international law, common sense and basic decency by attacking the people of Ukraine. Punitive sanctions on his regime, and him personally, must swiftly ensue – and Germany, Hungary, Austria and other waverers must fall into line. Britain, too, must finally act to curb Russian money-laundering in London.
It is to be profoundly hoped that Russia can yet be prevented from making a catastrophic mistake. For whatever doubts exist about Nato, about US motives, and about the wisdom of war-fighting in general – and there are many – the west did not seek nor does it want this fight. Ultimate responsibility plainly lies with Putin and with Putin’s lies. This is Putin’s conflict.
An erosion of democratic norms. An escalating climate emergency. Corrosive racial inequality. A crackdown on the right to vote. Rampant pay inequality. America is in the fight of its life. If you can, please make a gift today to fund our reporting in 2022."
???
"Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) blasted President Biden on Sunday for what he described as his enabling of Russia’s aggression toward Ukraine, saying Biden’s presidency was the “best thing” that had happened for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Fox News Channel anchor Bill Hemmer asked Cruz during an appearance on “Fox News Sunday” if he believes the White House’s approach to the situation at the Ukrainian border has worked so far.
“No, it hasn’t worked at all. If you look at what the Ukrainians want, they’ve been very explicit,” Cruz said. “They’ve asked the United States explicitly, ‘Put sanctions on Nord Stream 2, right now, today.’ Joe Biden could do that this morning. He refuses to do it. And they said, number two, provide lethal military aid, give us the weapons to defend ourselves.”
Cruz argued that Senate support for sanctions against the Nord Stream 2 pipeline has changed solely because of who is sitting in the Oval Office and accused Democrats of voting “in favor” of Russia.
“Joe Biden came to Capitol Hill and personally lobbied Democratic senators to vote against Russian sanctions. That’s why we’re facing this invasion. I gotta say Bill, Joe Biden becoming president is the best thing that ever happened, tragically, for Vladimir Putin,” said Cruz.
The Biden administration has vowed to issue “unprecedented” and “crippling” sanctions against Russia if it invades Ukraine. On Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called on Western governments to issue preemptive sanctions against Moscow.
Biden said last week that he was “convinced” that Russia was planning on invading Ukraine, though members of his administration have said that diplomatic paths toward deescalation are still on the table."??? How so?
From CNN’s Pierre Bairin
European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to not recognize the separatist republics of Donbas.
"We call upon President Putin to respect international law and the Minsk agreements and expect him not to recognize the independence of the Luhansk and Donetsk Oblast. And we are ready to react with a strong united front in case he should decide to do so,” said Borrell at a press conference on Monday following a meeting of EU’s foreign ministers in Brussels.
Putin informed French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz by phone that he intends to sign a decree “soon” to recognize two breakaway pro-Russian territories — which call themselves the Luhansk and Donetsk People’s Republics — the Kremlin said Monday.
“It will be soon, eight years since Russia invaded an illegally annexed Crimea. And they want to repeat when again that any further aggression against Ukraine will have a strong answer from the European Union,” Borrell said.
The EU’s top diplomat also said that Russia had created “the biggest threat to peace and stability in Europe since the Second World War.”
“The staged events and information manipulation are clearly aimed at creating a pretext for military escalations against Ukraine. It’s a classical way of behaving. You create a pretext for military escalations," Borrell continued.
"The EU foreign policy chief said that a strong response from the European Union would also apply to Belarus “should an attack be conducted from its territory or with its involvement.”
"U.S. intelligence has received information saying Russian military commanders have been given orders to proceed with an invasion of Ukraine, CBS News reported on Sunday.
“They’re doing everything that American commanders would do once they got the order to proceed,” the network’s national security correspondent, David Martin, said while appearing on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
“The intelligence says that Russian troops have actually received orders now to proceed with the invasion. So not only are they moving up closer and closer to the border and into these attack positions, but the commanders on the ground are making specific plans for how they would maneuver in their sector of the battlefield,” said Martin."
This is incredible, what ever happened to all the hoopla surrounding the detente?
"Russian President Vladimir Putin mocked one of his chief officials during a televised meeting Monday, telling the intelligence officer to “speak plainly.”
The Russian president grew testy with Director of Foreign Intelligence Sergey Naryshkin during a tense meeting on Ukraine. Putin was seemingly annoyed at what he characterized as unclear statements of support for declaring the independence of two Ukrainian regions.
“With the suggestion of Nikolai Platonovich, that we could give our, how to say it, Western partners, one last chance. Presenting them with the choice, in the shortest time frame, to force Kyiv to choose peace and implement the Minsk agreements,” Naryshin told the president. “In the worst case, we must make the decision that we are discussing today.”
RUSSIA-UKRAINE: WHITE HOUSE DECLARES RUSSIAN ‘INVASION,’ SAYS SANCTIONS COMING: LIVE UPDATES
“What does it mean, ‘in the worst case’? Are you suggesting we start negotiations?” Putin asked. “Or to recognize sovereignty?”
As Naryshkin stuttered, attempting to respond, Putin pressed him harder.
“Speak, speak, speak plainly!” Putin said.
“I support the proposal about the entry of the Donetsk and Luhansk Peoples’ Republics into the Russian Federation,” Naryshkin responded calmly.
“We’re not talking about that,” Putin responded, shaking his head. “We’re not discussing that. We’re talking about recognizing their independence or not.”
“Yes,” Naryshin finally responded. “I support their proposal for independence.”
Russian troops have arrived in eastern Ukraine hours after Putin announced that he would recognize the independence of two separatist regions,
. (Yuri Kochetkov/Pool via AP)"
C FOX NEWS
"President Biden on Tuesday directed additional U.S. troops to NATO’s eastern flank as Russia moved a step closer toward a large-scale invasion of Ukraine.
“As Russia contemplates its next move, we have our next move prepared as well,” Biden told reporters at the White House.
“Today, in response to Russia’s admission that it will not withdraw its forces from Belarus, I have authorized additional movements of U.S. forces and equipment already stationed in Europe to strengthen our Baltic allies, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.”
Washington has already deployed or repositioned some 6,000 U.S. forces to Germany, Poland and Romania near the countries’ borders with Ukraine as Russia has gathered an estimated 190,000 troops near its border with the former Soviet country and in Belarus.
Western nations fear Moscow may soon move to mount a large-scale attack on Ukraine, a concern amplified by Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday recognizing two separatist regions of Ukraine - the Donetsk People’s Republic and Luhansk People’s Republic - as independent and ordering troops to the area.
Belarus also said on Monday that the withdrawal from its territory of Russian troops, forces there under the guise of joint war games between the two countries, would depend to a large extent on NATO pulling back its forces.
“He is setting up a rationale to take more territory by force, in my view,” Biden said of Putin in remarks from the East Room. “This is the beginning of a Russian invasion of Ukraine.”
Biden did not say how many troops would be sent to the three Baltic nations or where they would be repositioned from but said it was “totally defensive moves on our part” and the United States has “no intention of fighting Russia.”
“We want to send an unmistakable message that the United States together with our allies will defend every inch of NATO territory and abide by the commitments we made to NATO,” he said, adding that Washington will also continue to provide defensive assistance to Ukraine.
A senior defense official told reporters later Tuesday that the extra forces will be comprised of airmen and ground troops that will move “to NATO’s northeastern and southeastern flanks in coming days and are expected to be in place later this week.”
The forces include an infantry battalion task force of approximately 800 personnel that will move from Italy to the Baltic region, up to eight F-35 fighter jets sent from Germany to “several operating locations along NATO’s eastern flank,” a battalion of 20 AH-64 Apache helicopters moved from Germany to the Baltic region and 12 Apache helicopters moving from Greece to Poland.
The additional personnel are being repositioned temporarily “to reassure our NATO allies, deter any potential aggression against NATO member states and train with host nation forces,” the official added.
In the same speech, Biden announced that the U.S. would also sanction Russian sovereign debt and Russian elites as well as their family members. "
& the beat goes on
Putin’s next moves are critical for Ukraine – and Americans
Analysis by Stephen Collinson, CNN
Updated 8:38 AM EST, Tue February 22, 2022
article video
(CNN)What happens in the coming hours will decide how bad the Ukraine crisis gets for the vulnerable democracy in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s sights but also its potentially huge impact on Americans and an already deeply unstable world.
Whether Putin stages a full-scale invasion into all of Ukraine or limits his incursion to sending troops to two pro-Moscow regions in the east that he recognized as independent on Monday will dictate the severity of sanctions the US and its allies say will be the most consequential ever imposed on Moscow.
US official says Russian troops could move into pro-Moscow regions of Ukraine in the coming hours
US official says Russian troops could move into pro-Moscow regions of Ukraine in the coming hours
The question of whether he has ambitions beyond eastern Ukraine also has wider implications. His alarming speech Monday that slammed NATO for disrespecting and threatening Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union could plunge Washington and Moscow back into a new Cold War-style confrontation after 30 years of relative calm in Europe. And developments in the hours and days to come will have massive implications for Americans. A Russian invasion of the rest of Ukraine send already sending the soaring gasoline prices and inflation that have hammered wallets in the US much higher. It would also land another blow against President Joe Biden’s credibility and hand him an intractable challenge with his Democrats already at risk of huge losses in midterm election year.
The omens are very, very dark.
At the stroke of a pen Monday, Putin sliced off two more pieces of an independent, sovereign nation to add to his seizure of Crimea in 2014. Moscow said it would send what it called “peacekeepers” to the regions. Its euphemism notwithstanding, US officials fear that the force could be the vanguard of the full invasion mobilization they have predicted for days.
As bad as this flash of gangster geopolitics already is, things could get a lot worse.
If Putin were to stop here, it is possible that the Ukraine crisis could be contained, and even give the Russian President an opening to deescalate the situation and desist from a full invasion of the entire country after pocketing new territory in his quest to prevent Ukraine from moving toward the West. Such a step back – perhaps designed to divide the US from less hawkish allies – might avoid a wider global crisis. In the US, this interim scenario might also spare Americans a damaging new spike in gasoline prices and inflation and allow Biden to escape another blow to his credibility in a tough midterm election year.
Unfortunately, however, the evidence of Putin’s own furious rhetoric on Monday, the presence of up to 190,000 Russian troops on Ukraine’s borders and most assessments of US leaders and intelligence officials suggest hopes for a limited conflict are wishful thinking.
In his speech from the Kremlin, Putin made clear that he sees Ukraine as indistinguishable from Russia and not an independent entity – hardly an argument that suggests restraint. In fact, his screed came across as a justification for a far larger venture than a limited incursion into the east of the country.
US ambassador to UN says Putin’s claim he’s sending ‘peacekeepers’ into eastern Ukraine is ‘nonsense’
He referred to Ukraine as “an integral part of our own history, culture, spiritual space” and referred to comrades, relatives and people “connected with us by blood.”
“Modern Ukraine was entirely created by Russia,” he added.
In a United Nations Security Council emergency meeting on Monday evening, US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield argued that Russia’s designation of troops it was sending to eastern Ukraine as “peacekeepers” was “nonsense.” She said the force was an “attempt to create a pretext for a further invasion of Ukraine.”
A speech that set Ukrainians on edge
Putin’s propagandistic view of history did not amount to a declaration of an invasion or an attempt to reunite Ukraine with the Motherland. But it would be easy to read it as an attempt to prepare the Russian people for war. It also surely augured a long-term effort to dominate and destabilize a democracy that includes large numbers of citizens who yearn to join NATO and the European Union.
Putin’s most chilling line came when he appeared to lay the groundwork for treating any attack on Russian forces due to enter eastern Ukraine as a pretext for a wider conflict that the US has said could kill thousands of civilians and trigger refugee flows.
In eastern Ukraine’s Donbas, Putin draws on an old playbook
“From those who seized and hold power in Kyiv, we demand an immediate cessation of hostilities,” Putin said of a government that, unlike him, was chosen in a free and fair election. “Otherwise, all responsibility for the possible continuation of the bloodshed will be entirely on the conscience of the regime ruling on the territory of Ukraine.”
Just as ominously, multiple US officials told CNN that they interpreted Putin’s move on the two eastern Ukrainian regions, which call themselves the Donetsk People’s Republic and Luhansk People’s Republic (DPR and LPR), as part of a steady march to a wider invasion of Ukraine.
“This is Potemkin politics,” a senior administration official told reporters on Monday. “President Putin is accelerating the very conflict that he’s created.”
As soon as Putin made his announcement, Biden consulted with the leaders of France and Germany and quickly announced a package of trade and finance sanctions against the two pro-Moscow regions. But he did not immediately roll out the devastating wave of measures against the Russian economy that he has promised in the event of an invasion of Ukraine. US deputy national security adviser Jon Finer told CNN’s Brianna Keilar on “New Day” Tuesday that additional sanctions were coming later in the day as part of a “swift and severe response” to Moscow’s actions.
The President got himself in some political trouble last month when he suggested that a “minor incursion” into Ukraine would not trigger the full force of the most punitive sanctions ever levied on Moscow. He inadvertently told the truth about divisions at the time between US and European allies over the exact moment when the full sanctions would turn on. Biden later clarified his comment, saying that sanctions would be triggered if “any assembled Russian units” rolled across the Ukrainian border.
But again on Monday, administration officials appeared to make a distinction between eastern Ukraine and the rest of the country. “There have been Russian forces present in these areas” since 2014, a senior official told reporters.
“So we’re going to be looking very closely at what they do over the coming hours and days and our response will be measured, according, again, to their actions,” the official said.
Why Donbas is at the heart of the Ukraine crisis
It was not clear whether the administration position was due to sequencing issues with allies over sanctions or whether it was seeking to preserve one last-ditch point of potential leverage with Putin. In any case, the Russian leader scoffed at the idea of sanctions in his speech.
It is prudent for the US to actually punish Russia for what it does rather than what Putin says. But the semantics over what constitutes an invasion does risk diminishing the action that the Russian President took on Monday. It is well known that what Russia has described as pro-Moscow rebels in eastern Ukraine were trained by Russia and took its orders. In effect, Putin took a piece of another country, without giving that state a say in its destiny. This is classic expansionist autocracy using ethnic justifications and false claims that Russians were being persecuted and targeted by genocide – a playbook shockingly familiar from the horror of the 1930s.
The question of what constitutes an invasion of Ukraine may soon be moot anyway. The US has accurately predicted Putin’s move through a pre-invasion checklist in recent days that includes moves in eastern Ukraine. And it may be correct again.
Pressure on Capitol Hill
The Biden administration, which has largely succeeded in building a united NATO front against Putin in recent weeks, is already facing demands from Capitol Hill for a swifter, harsher response to his land grab – even from some Democrats.
Democratic Rep. Gerry Connolly of Virginia told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer that the US needed to put down a flag and to correctly define the pending dispatch of “peacekeepers” to eastern Ukraine.
“That’s an invasion by any sense of the imagination,” he said, adding that the most consequential sanctions ever against Moscow must immediately follow.
Two leading Republican lawmakers laid into the Biden administration.
“As we’ve said for months, setting the trigger for meaningful sanctions to Russian tanks rolling across Ukraine’s border was a dangerous mistake,” said Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas, the lead Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Rep. Mike Rogers of Alabama, the top Republican on the House Armed Services Committee.
Putin moves in eastern Ukraine could be opening phase of possible large-scale invasion, multiple US and western officials say
“We must immediately impose real costs for this blatant act of aggression and flagrant violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. Unfortunately, the sanctions previewed by the White House thus far are the definition of impotence,” the two Republicans wrote.
US officials said late Monday that they expected Russian troops to start rolling into eastern Ukraine and the two rebel regions within hours.
The world will soon thereafter find out whether Putin’s bitter fury on Monday was a precursor of a wider conflagration that would effectively end the post-Cold War era and usher in a new age of tension in Europe.
That reality would require a huge rethink of transatlantic security – including the likely dispatch of thousands of US troops back to bases they left in 1990s and early 2000s. Such deployments would also complicate Washington’s desire to pivot its military might to Asia to wage a burgeoning new Cold War-style conflict against a rising superpower, China.
A prolonged geopolitical tussle with Russia would also force US and European policy makers to consider just how far Putin might try to push his effort to rewrite the borders of Europe.
“What worries me is what happens after Ukraine,” former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said on CNN on Monday evening. “We have got a real crisis on our hands here.”
Putin’s argument, for example, that Ukrainians were blood brothers of Russians was especially worrying since it could be applied to other countries that include large numbers of ethnic Russians – including the Baltic states, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, which were formerly under Soviet rule. Any attempt by Putin to extend his principle there could be hugely dangerous since all are now in NATO and benefit from the alliance’s guarantee of mutual self-defense.
The next few days will show how willing Putin is to act upon his words and will begin to answer Clapper’s question. The evidence so far looks ominous.
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This is particularly relevant in this moment of crisis:
"The Hungarian defense ministry on Tuesday announced in a Facebook post that it would be sending troops close to the Hungarian-Ukrainian border, which is situated in the northeastern region of Hungary, Reuters reported.
The defense ministry did not quantify the number of troops that would be moving toward its border with Ukraine but noted that they were being deployed for humanitarian and security purposes, the news wire noted.
Hungarian Defense Minister Tibor Benko said that in the next few days military equipment would be making its way toward the eastern side of the country, Reuters reported, citing Hungarian news outlet MTI.
He explained that the military moves were being conducted for preventative measures in case conflict in Ukraine moves east to west, possibly happening close to Hungary’s borders, the news outlet noted.
The development comes as two regions of eastern Ukraine were recognized as independent by Moscow on Monday and Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered troops into the two areas - the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic and the Luhansk People’s Republic - for “peacekeeping functions.”
President Biden announced sanctions against Russia later on Tuesday in prepared remarks, including against Russian elites and their families, sovereign debt and two Russian financial institutions. The president said he believed that Russia’s moves in Ukraine were only the start of an invasion into Ukraine.
“He is setting up a rationale to take more territory by force, in my view,” Biden said about Putin as he delivered remarks on Tuesday afternoon. “This is the beginning of a Russian invasion of Ukraine.”
The European Union nations also voted to impose their own set of sanctions against Russia, including limiting capital and financial market access and prohibiting some EU services from Russian access.
“We will make it as difficult as possible for the Kremlin to pursue its aggressive policies,” EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said, "
"Trump praised Vladimir Putin as “savvy” following news of an impending Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“This is genius,” Trump said of Putin’s recognition of two breakaway Ukrainian regions.
He said Biden shouldn’t send troops to Ukraine and he’d “rather see our southern border protected.”
Now, looking on this ; Trump may have missed the era of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution , when Russia rolled in with hundreds of tanks, mowing down innocent housewives armed with frying pans and University students .
The whole of Eastern Europe was up for grabs; at a time when the post WW2 ideological split was in process , testing the political waters for equilibrium. Has anything changed which has become some kind of measure of future political measure of justice?
Or is more blood need to be shed to revise the shirt standing order?
The NWO? Give us a break.
Here we go…
From the NYT:
[b]President Vladimir V. Putin has ordered Russian troops into Ukraine but made clear his target goes beyond his neighbor to America’s “empire of lies,” and he threatened “consequences you have never faced in your history” for “anyone who tries to interfere with us.”
In a rambling speech early Thursday, full of festering historical grievances and accusations of a relentless Western plot against his country, Mr. Putin reminded the world that Russia “remains one of the most powerful nuclear states” with “a certain advantage in several cutting edge weapons.”
In effect, Mr. Putin’s speech, intended to justify the invasion, seemed to come close to threatening nuclear war.
In the context of Russia’s nuclear arsenal, Mr. Putin said, “there should be no doubt that any potential aggressor will face defeat and ominous consequences should it directly attack our country.”[/b]
Sure, there’s what is happening in the media headlines and what might be unfolding “behind the curtains”.
Who the hell really know what The Truth is here.
Still, more to the point, what is really unfolding now inside Putin’s head?
And, as with Khrushchev and Kennedy, what if this turns into a “game of chicken”?
Mano a mano Putin and Biden go, each “stiffening” their resolve against the other.
What really is going on? I had the fortune of seeing the Ruskies in action, for that’s what the locals called them
To begin with the proletariat is used to a strong iron hand. They glee on Russian prowess, as on May day, they were enthused by the grandeur of the politburo waving to the crowd, while proud of the parade of weaponry signifying thei collusion might.
In fact Rusdia is a great country, since Peter the Great, it has diminished their collective feeling of being second rate to the glittering lights of cities there, particularly Paris.
Even now, France is attesting to play the Middle man ; A sort of Kissunger in a realm of cybernetic rehash of an important venue: reminders of Napolein , the Bastille and existential philosophy glittering reflected in The Hall of Mirrors.
How quickly things change politically, rang out by underlying dogmatic, the freedom bell ringing for near half a century is about to get another gong of a different kind.
Is it national socialism calling disillusioned western devalued reality that may usher in anew a changing power struggle? Is all effort wasted, as Western type propaganda sent out by Radio Free Europe masked the coming utopia with Hollywood’s version of what’s best in the best in the promise in political stability?
If things go bad purpotedly accidentally or otherwise, there may not be a Churchill or a Roosevelt around to see the fermentation of averice through.
All will remain will be sad men in offices dedicated to ideal, shaking their head and revising their earlier promises with : I told you so.