Colonel President Emperor Putin has placed self-propelled artillery in several locations around Ukraine’s border, and with paratroopers, among other methods, he has probed Ukraine’s and NATO’s defense reflexes. Probably, he has found the knees weak in response to and by comparison with his ambitions.
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As I type: Russia has launched its invasion of Ukraine beyond question.
Related:
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-28966679
Although most world leaders have not actually come out and said so, Ukraine is being invaded. That’s according to Ukrainian politicians and military officials, NATO representatives, and, privately, officials in Washington.
http://www.defenseone.com/threats/2014/08/invasion-ukraine-maps-satellite-photos-and-video/92813/ – 8/29/2014.
Mr Putin does the big lies, while his foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, trudges on a treadmill of deception that never stops. He was labouring along as usual yesterday, dismissing reports that Russian regular troops were fighting in Ukraine as “conjectures”. Not once, he continued in his po-faced way, “have any facts been presented to us”. Why Europe and America have to some extent gone along with this chicanery is not that mysterious.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/aug/29/guardian-view-on-russian-incursions-ukraine – 8/29/2014.
The presence of Russian military personnel in Ukraine is now beyond dispute, everywhere except in Russia. On Thursday, NATO released satellite imagery of Russian combat troops operating inside Ukraine’s borders, prompting mild international expressions of concern about the deteriorating situation. Russian paratroopers have been filmed discussing their operations in Ukraine. In a press conference on Wednesday, captured Russian soldiers said they entered Ukrainian territory “in convoys. Not on the roads but through the fields.”
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/119260/russias-invasion-ukraine-evidence-convincing-putin-denies
I may suggest this: the dictators Putin, Putin-Assad-Khamenei, Putin (Yanukovich yesterday, perhaps Orban tomorrow) do not come equipped with off switches or reverse gears: they will run their interior programs and scripts forward until impeded, stopped, reversed, and destroyed while their enterprises are transformed.
If enabled forward, their programs will end in the control and subjugation of others and that too, as with ISIS, will end in the destruction of humanity with unbridled sadism.
It may not look so bad at first, but cast a glance at Syria with Sochi by its side: tell me what you see.
(Russia pledged $10 million for Syrian humanitarian relief during the run up to the Olympic Games; Putin then spent $51 billion on the games).
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday said that Crimea is “indispensable to Russia,” reminding listeners that “Russia is one of the most powerful nuclear nations.”
“This is a reality, not just words,” Putin said.
http://mashable.com/2014/08/29/putin-crimea-ukraine-invasion/ – 8/29/2014.
” . . . regulars . . . Russian troops with Russian weapons . . .” (CNN, YT poster James Nguyen – 8/29/2014).
Ukraine’s president today declared that a “Russian invasion” of his country was underway and the United Nations’ Security Council called an emergency session to discuss the latest crisis involving allegations of Russia’s overt support for Ukrainian rebels.
http://abcnews.go.com/International/russian-invasion-ukraine-prompts-emergency-meeting/story?id=25156827 – 8/29/2014.
“There is no doubt that this is not a homegrown, indigenous uprising in eastern Ukraine. The separatists are backed, trained, armed, financed by Russia,” Obama said.
Russian actions will be a main topic for the summit of NATO leaders next week in Wales, Obama said.
For the bully, social interaction is all about proving himself a winner by making other people feel that they are the losers.
http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/04/vladimir-putin-narcissist/360544/ – 4/15/2014.
“Russia doesn’t make anything,” Mr. Obama went on. “Immigrants aren’t rushing to Moscow for opportunities. The life expectancy of the Russian male is around 60 years old. The population is shrinking.”
Levada polls conducted in the second week of March show just how effective the state propaganda machine has been: A majority of Russians believe that Ukraine has no legitimate government, that Russian speakers in Ukraine are in danger and that blame for the crisis in Crimea lies squarely with Ukrainian nationalists. Only 6 percent of Russians are “definitely opposed” to a military invasion of Ukraine.
Despite the fact that 70% of respondents admit that they do not understand, do not understand the essence of the processes taking place in Ukraine, the majority (63%) believe that “the federal Russian media as a whole or for the most part objective coverage of events taking place in Ukraine or the Crimea.
http://www.levada.ru/13-03-2014/situatsiya-v-ukraine-i-v-krymu – 3/13/2014.
Additional Reference
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-propelled_artillery
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(14)61424-0/fulltext – 8/30/2014 – “Ukraine: health workers fear for their safety”
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-28978699 – “Ukraine to seek NATO membership, says PM Yatsenyuk. – 8/29/2014.
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2014/03/11/inside-mind-vladimir-putin-russian-president-no-simple-thug/ – 3/11/2014.
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