Ukraine says 100,000 Russian troops near border
Source: AFP
Washington — Nearly 100,000 Russian forces have massed on Ukraine's border, a top Ukrainian defense official told an American audience Thursday, giving a number far higher than US military estimates.
"Almost 100,000 soldiers are stationed on the borders of Ukraine and in the direction ... of Kharkiv, Donetsk, " Andriy Parubiy, chairman of Ukraine's national security council, said via a webcast from Kiev.
"Russian troops are not in Crimea only, they are along all Ukrainian borders. They're in the south, they're in the east and in the north," Parubiy said.
After its intervention in the Crimean peninsula, Russia is plotting to foment separatist sentiment elsewhere and Kiev fears a possible incursion in the country's east, he told the Atlantic Council, a Washington think tank.
Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iP_1hUc_l6kEOY7PXeIMniz3ckMw?docId=daa18bad-76d7-4301-89b5-47041004d83c&hl=en
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Benton D Struckcheon
(2,347 posts)The above may or may not be exaggerated, but this is simple fact:
Source: http://www.janes.com/article/35861/ukrainian-navy-decimated-by-russian-move-into-crimea
This is simple theft, as is the fact that Russia will now use its de facto annexation to get at what could be some very large oil & gas fields in the Black Sea adjacent to Crimea, which I have no doubt is the real reason for this invasion. With Putin it ain't no different than anyone else: follow the money.
AAO
(3,300 posts)
ballyhoo
(2,060 posts)probably do. There is really nothing to stop them anymore. And not enough money. I just want to know: will the people who now or in the future be ruled by Russian be happier than they were? Or will they fit right in quickly? Nuland may have opened the largest hornet's nest in history.
okaawhatever
(9,462 posts)gussmith
(280 posts)Another world wide madness. Why would 100,000 troops, their families, businesses, communities, their country, their allies support such Putin madness? Will the world ever be free of the few mad men who command the rest?
7962
(11,841 posts)Russia Uber Alles!!
What will the Ukrainians do if he does cross the border? Will they fight? Will they just let him take whatever he wants? And where will it stop?
The sabers are rattling and this time its NOT our fault.
AAO
(3,300 posts)They felt humiliated at the breakup of the CCCP. Almost identical to the way people in Germany felt about the Treaty of Versailles.
DallasNE
(7,403 posts)So I doubt they would put that many eggs in one basket. Also, should they move in that massively it could force NATO's hand to where they provide air support that could do heavy damage to the Russian military in short order. At that point military defections could kick in causing the military to topple Putin. I know, it's far fetched but then I think that 100,000 number is also far fetched.
AnalystInParadise
(1,832 posts)of total Russia ground forces which are estimated at 320,000-390,000 depending on where Russia is for the portion of its military still subject to the Conscript System. 1/3 of the Russian military used for a lightning strike into Ukraine? Sounds about right, we used nearly 1/3 of our ground forces when I was in the Iraq invasion of 2003.
snappyturtle
(14,656 posts)Oleh Tyahnybok (leader of Ukraine's Svoboda party);
(neo-Nazi) and recently appointed (by whom?) to the current coup government.......
dipsydoodle
(42,239 posts)The border is over 1400 miles. 100,000 represents roughly one every 25 yards.
Odd how they never publish any pictures of the massed troops.
cosmicone
(11,014 posts)all without investigating the source of the conflict -- an illegal takeover of a democratically elected Ukrainian government.
DallasNE
(7,403 posts)He fled the country and was impeached by the Parliament, with his own party joining in to vote for impeachment. It was a whole lot more legal than the conquest of Crimea by Russia.
cosmicone
(11,014 posts)by gun-toting neonazis and fascists supported by the CIA.
Adrahil
(13,340 posts)I mean, it's impossible that the Russians are bad actors here, right?
cosmicone
(11,014 posts)you got that right 
Adrahil
(13,340 posts)
Igel
(35,337 posts)On the other hand, we have the announcement that Russia is pulling out 10s of thousdands of "troops" and a lot of equipment.
Oddly, the equipment they're pulling out matches fairly closely the description of the equipment that was reported being unloaded and which patrolled the streets for the last few weeks. And the number of troops being pulled out matches fairly closely the number of troops that went in, even if there's this funny discrepancy between the number of insignias and the number of bodies.
Many of those "self-defence forces" are returning to their Russian bases, having self-defended, it would appear ... "legitimate" Russian interests. Getting back Russian bodies, ships, land, and oil/gas reserves. Or perhaps they're just being moved to other parts of the border.
Truly, a cunning ruse. Worthy of the Black Adder himself in its deviousness and persuasiveness.
IkeRepublican
(406 posts)I wonder if this situation is another one of Strangelove Brezenzski's elaborate baits like with Afghanistan. The information coming out, much like Afghanistan 1979, is an endless cluster-eff.
I don't know. Just seems to have that ring to it. Plus, given the President's words on the matter in Brussels, it has a very heavy Reagan-esque feel to it during the Soviet/Afghanistan years. Hopefully, that communist bastard Putin might see it as such and back the eff up, thereby saving innocent Russian lives.
Besides, Putin doesn't need to be Mr. Tough Guy. He's already got the teapublicans over here petting his junk every chance they get.
Bosonic
(3,746 posts)Russia is mobilizing for war and may be poised for a springtime invasion of Ukraine’s mainland, after stealing Crimea in less than three weeks.
Tens of thousands of Russian troops and military hardware, including artillery, tanks, warplanes and helicopters are amassing and carrying out war games on all sides of Ukraine.
High concentrations have been spotted in Russia’s Klimovo in the north and Russia’s Belgorod in the northeast, in Russian-annexed Crimea in the south and in Moldova’s breakaway Transnistria region in the southwest, as well as sizable groups carrying out military exercises in Belarus in the north.
As a spring invasion of mainland Ukraine looms large, Yevhen Marchuk, a retired Ukrainian general and former defense minister, warned on March 27 that the crisis is intensifying, saying that Russia has now moved to the “second phase” of its plan “to eliminate” Ukraine as a nation. “There are many signs of an imminent attack,” he told journalists at the Ukrainian Crisis Media Center. “Now it is in fact war time.”
http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/state-of-war-341161.html
Bosonic
(3,746 posts)US President Obama has urged Russia to stop "intimidating" Ukraine and cut the number of troops it has on its border.
Russia is believed to have massed a force of several thousand troops close to Ukraine's eastern frontier.
Mr Obama told CBS News it may "be an effort to intimidate Ukraine, or it may be that [Russia has] additional plans."
Meanwhile, a Russian security official has said intelligence measures are being stepped up to counter Western threats to Moscow's influence. "There has been a sharp increase in external threats to the state. The lawful desire of the peoples of Crimea and eastern Ukrainian regions is causing hysteria in the United States and its allies," Interfax quoted Alexander Malevany, deputy head of the Federal Security Service (FSB), as saying.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-26787051
dipsydoodle
(42,239 posts)Its about time they published some pictures to confirm their claim.
