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U S Accuses Russia Of Direct Involvement In Ukraine

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ChillDoubt | 07:46 Fri 25th Jul 2014 | News
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http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-28476153

Looks like Mad Vlad isn't just backing and arming the rebels, he's actively supporting them with direct military action.
This would not be an accusation that the US would make lightly so it must be given due creedence.
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Nothing the people of Ukraine haven't known for months.
Since the downing of the plane last week Russia has actually increased the supplies of men and arms going across the border, as well as continuing to fire from across the border. Indeed the Sukhoi fighters shot down on Wednesday were probably hit from within Russia.
The reason for this is almost certainly that the "rebels" are losing. Slowly but inexorably the Ukrainian military is forcing them out of towns and villages in the Donbass, and may well soon have them cut off from the border, which will spell their end.
It's rather a disgrace that it has taken last week's mass murder of neutral civilians for this now to be hitting the headlines.
Itchie //It's rather a disgrace that it has taken last week's mass murder of neutral civilians for this now to be hitting the headlines.//

that is what the unshaven fella in fatigues said,
while holding up the stuffed toy monkey to the hacks.

[ you are only here because of the foreing dead ]

I felt like replying - of course we are - what do you expect? the days of empire are long over....
Fortunately Ukraine now have the EU and are signed up to the EU's Common Security and Defence Policy and European Defence Agency policies.
"you are only here because of the foreign dead"

Ukranian government, rebel and civilian casualties -have- been reported on western media but
i) it was twos and threes at a time, not hundreds or thousands
ii) it was an expected effect of civil war and, as such, was delivered as incidental detail to the retinue of towns/bases captured. Dog bites man stuff, not sensational, to be brutal about it.
iii) it didn't involve hundreds of innocent passers-by, riding in one of the world's safest types of plane.


It is clear that Putin wants to be Tsar. The great title of the Tsar was always "Tsar of all the Russias", and he wants to be that. In order to be in that position of power, he has to get back the states of the former USSR into his empire. He has obviously been reading Russian history, and knows that when the old Tsarist empire broke up after the Revolution, the Bolshevists attacked the newly-independent states and forced them back into the then USSR. Putin thinks he can do that again, and become the Tsar he wants to be.
Does anyone suspect megalomania ? "Power tends to corrupt, absolute power . . . . " ?
Putin has painted himself into a corner. If he backs down he will loose face in Russia and will be out.

The EU are powerless. Germany and others need the gas and trade, so they tinker at the edges and let the Russian Bear plough on. Putin knows this and knows he can push much further if he wants to.

If the West continue pushing I can easily see him piling lock stock and barrel into the Ukraine, Putin will simply take the 'might as well be hung for something big as something small' attitude.



Mad Vlad ?

Not at all, the man is a very clever politician. And we should fear that a lot. Name calling won't do us any good, we need strong action now before it gets out of hand.
before it gets out of hand?

I'd say the slaughter of 300 people by shooting down a civilian plane is pretty 'out of hand'.
I take it you think the US should act then YMB, as we're powerless (which, incidentally, I agree with).
I agree.
Very frustrating to hear the UK's former Moscow ambassador continually being wheeled out by the BBC to tell us that we must be nice to him and not back him into a corner. Spoken like a true diplomat who's been the veteran of one too many cocktail party.
Though it is interesting to speculate on the extent to which Putin really is cold and calculating and how much is genuine paranoia. No one, honestly, knows.
He's been called a great tactician but a poor strategist. This may turn out to be a good illustration of that.
Meanwhile, here's a charming lass from Torez, Eastern Ukraine, Ekaterina Parkhomenko. She's boasting about acquiring, from a rebel "soldier", a cosmetic stick pilfered from the wreckage of the plane ...:
http://voronz.in.ua/recomend/25-7-14-21160
Zacs, whilst not wishing to appear without sympathy let us put the 300 in perspective for war:

The total number of military and civilian casualties in World War I was over 37 million

Believe me it could get much much worse than 300.

And yes, the US will have to be the ones. We will not get anything out of Europe or the UK (or Scotland apres September)
And USA has no involvement in killing so many innocent children in Gaza?
Get off your hobby horse keyplus. Plenty of threads on here already for that, why hijack this one?
When Russia had a go at Georgia not so long ago, they ended up taking a slice of that country for themselves, to act as a buffer zone between Russia and the EU. They would love for that to be the case in a divided Ukraine, too, which is why they're giving support to the pro-Russian rebels. Russia is absolutely paranoid about having a pro-western country slap up against its borders.
Yes with Georgia Putin wanted to keep that country divided and therefore weak, hence his cynical support for Abkhazian and Ossetian separatists (and also Adzharians for a while until they gave that up)
Similarly with Ukraine, but as I said in another thread Ukraine doesn't really offer the same possibilities, ethnic minority wise. His interference in Eastern Ukraine is therefore a lot messier and almost certainly doomed to fail.
He'd be better off relying on the pro-western politicians messing it up again as they did the last time (the Prime Minister resigned yesterday and there's a bit of a feeling of "here we go again")
It may be that Putin really fears the Maidan movement, which is a serious grassroots anti-politician, anti-oligarch, anti-corruption affair. There are the people who really swung it against the old president, and who are still very influential. Or maybe he really does believe the nonsense that they are all EU-financed Nazis. Much as I support the EU I would not credit Baroness Ashton and co with that degree of influence or indeed competence :-)
This is purely a trade war instigated by the EU.

They encouraged the illegal overthrow of the democratically elected President. They then ignored the referendums in the east where the people voted overwhelmingly to reject the EU and ascede with Russia and the CIS.

The EU has form in ignoring referendums which reject it.

// Russia is absolutely paranoid about having a pro-western country slap up against its borders. //

Estonia and Latvia border Russia and have been been NATO and EU members for 10 years. Ukraine was Russia's bread basket. Estonia and Latvia were not Russia's breadbasket.
Gromit I respect you but you're analysis is hopelessly wide of the mark.

For a start, the "trade war" if there is one is being waged by Russia, which has banned Ukrainian, Georgian and Moldovan imports, pretty much predictably as those countries have sought to extricate themselves from its malign influence. And of course Russia has now really put the "war" into "trace war"
As for the Referendums in the east" you cannot possibly mean the travesties of democracy held in Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts a few months ago? Can you? So dubious even Putin disowned them?

"Estonia and Latvia border Russia and have been been NATO and EU members for 10 years. Ukraine was Russia's bread basket. Estonia and Latvia were not Russia's breadbasket. "

Estonia and Latvia are particular targets of Russia and were it not for their NATO membership would be in a sorry state today.
And the reason Russia is interfering in Ukraine today is nothing to do with bread :-)
With the resignation of the Ukrainian PM and collapse of the coalition, the counrty has a lame duck Government until October.

At the very time they need strong leadership, the have effectively got no leadership for the next 3 months.
It isn't ideal although Poroshenko can still conduct military operations as president.
Also, it is a curious quirk of the Ukrainian constitution that parliament can still legislate after it is officially dissolved :-)
Ichkeria
Will Crimea and Donetsk be able to vote in the parliamentary elections? And if not, is that an admission they are lost for good?

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