Friday, March 28, 2014

Ukraine: Increasing Warnings & Some Hope






The Russian build up on the eastern border continues.  The Ukrainian government is giving second sources now of support units moving along.  The videos above vary from March 11 to yesterday.  The one with the APCs is impressive.  That's the full logistics train, not just AFVs, and it looks to be somewhere around 50 APCs.  That is at least a battalion.

Putin called Obama to discuss the situation.  

Obama warned Putin to move the troops back away from the border.

The Ukrainians have dug in along the border.  Its a big border.

The Russians also threatened the UN ambassadors in eastern europe and central asia just before the UN vote for supporting the territorial integrity of Ukraine.  The Russians replied they just explained the situation.  ahem.



The candidates are coming out of the woodwork.  Poroshenko seems to be the leading contender.    Ukrainians I know call him a crook.   Since the presidency is supposed to be symbolic, a la European style, Klitschko might be the best pick.  Whoever it is MUST stick with the constitution.  Timoshenko must NOT be elected president.  She will rip up the constitution again for her own advantage.

It appears the Ukrainians avoided some of the pitfalls Greece made with the IMF.  Though that might be

I'm going to cave in for the moment to my inner arm chair general and wonder what would be the repercussions if the 173rd Airborne Brigade were deployed to Donetsk.  Would that make things better?  IE tripwire troops to make the Russians think twice?  Or would that make things worse?

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