Check, Mate
The phone call had been delayed since Monday owing to Johnson’s need to answer questions on the Sue Gray report. Photograph: Tayfun Salcı/Zuma/Rex/Shutterstock |
"The prime minister expressed his deep concern about Russia's current hostile activity on the Ukrainian border,""He emphasized the need to find a way forward which respects both Ukraine's territorial integrity and right to self-defense. The prime minister stressed that any further Russian incursion into Ukrainian territory would be a tragic miscalculation."British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Office"It's already clear now ... that fundamental Russian concerns were ignored.""Let's imagine Ukraine is a NATO member and starts these military operations. Are we supposed to go to war with the NATO bloc?""Has anyone given that any thought? Apparently not."Russian President Vladimir Putin
Indeed,
much attention has been given to that question. It is actually so
fundamental to the reason that Ukraine would like to be a member of
NATO, like some of its neighbours. For the assurance that Moscow would
think deeply about what it is considering in returning Russia to its
former glory days of absorbing its near-abroad neighbours once again
into the warm embrace of its octopus grasp as satellites revolving
around Soviet Russia.
And
it is precisely that aspiration that so concerns Russia's neighbours
that they grasp at the opportunity of having the assurance that a group
will be looking out for their interests of sovereignty and security. So
Mr. Putin in posing that hypothetical question is merely being
disingenuous. His actions belie innocence of that knowledge and the
question answers itself poignantly in the dread memories haunting the
former captive members of the USSR.
On
Tuesday Mr. Putin accused the West of ignoring Russia's security
concerns, deliberately creating a war scenario to suit their purposes
with the added insult of humiliating Russia. On Wednesday, Mr. Putin
shared a conversation with Britain's Prime Minister, but before that
conversation took place, an odd occurrence had Britain slightly on edge
as they scrambled fighters to 'escort' Russian bombers approaching
British airspace. Intimidation? heaven forfend such a thought...!
A Russian TU-95 bomber photo credit: REUTERS)
|
"Quick Reaction Alert Typhoon fighters based at RAF Lossiemouth supported by a Voyager from RAF Brize Norton were scrambled today against unidentified aircraft approaching the UK area of interest.""Subsequently, we intercepted and escorted four Russian Bear aircraft,"Royal Air Force spokesman
Mr.
Putin shared a news conference with the prime minister of Hungary,
visiting, as one of several NATO leaders making an effort to intercede
with him, during the crisis where it is abundantly apparent that Russia
has planned another invasion of Ukraine. Mr. Putin, defiant against NATO
demands that he have Russian troops and armaments removed from the
border with Ukraine, has no intention of backing away from his own
security demands.
NATO
warns Russia that it will not tolerate an invasion of a sovereign
nation without exacting painful sanctions against Russia, while Russia
insists that it has the right and the will power to persuade the Western
alliance to withdraw its presence from Russia's near-abroad -- where
NATO member-states have sent troops to other invasion-vulnerable former
satellites of the USSR -- and never consider allowing Ukraine to join
the alliance.
Russia,
which in 2014 surprised the international community by invading Ukraine
-- and supporting ethnic Russian Ukrainian separatist rebels in the
Donbas region of eastern Ukraine in their violent separation aspirations
in Donetsk and Luhansk, then swooped in on the Crimean peninsula to
claim it as Russian territory -- expresses concern that as a member of
NATO Ukraine might take it upon itself to reclaim Crimea, is downright
risible.
With
over 100,000 troops massed on the border with Ukraine, setting itself
up for an invasion, Russia denies it has any such intentions; the
troops, the arms, and the field hospitals are merely a practise
performance, not a rehearsal. However, it now says, should its security
demands not be met it could decide to take military action of an
unspecified nature. Denials and verification.
"If President Putin really does not intend war or regime change, the Secretary [U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken] told Foreign Minister Lavrov then this is the time to pull back troops and heavy weaponry and engage in a serious discussion ... that can enhance collective European security."U.S. State Department official
President
Putin has been silent since mid-December until the present, with an
atmosphere of ambiguity on his decision-making, inspiring diplomats from
Russia and the West to engage in repeated rounds of talks in the hope
of defusing the crisis. His remarks this week paint a picture of
Russia's need to defend itself from a hostile U.S. concerned not with
Ukraine's security, but its intention to contain Russia.
And
just as Russia refuses to be dictated to by the United States, the
Biden administration has now announced its decision to deploy 2,000
troops from Fort Bragg, members of the 82nd Airborne Division infantry
brigade to go to Poland. The deployment, said Poland's Defense Minister
is "a strong signal of solidarity in response to the situation in Ukraine".
Of
the total number, several hundred with the 18th Airborne Corps are set
to arrive in Germany representing what the Pentagon spoke of as a "joint task force-capable headquarters". And Mr. Putin is free to make of that what he will.
A Ukrainian serviceman on the frontline in Donetsk. Photograph: Anatolii Stepanov/AFP/Getty Images |
Labels: Invasion, NATO, Russia, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States, Vladimir Putin
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