Russia has demanded strict limits on the activities of the US-led Nato military alliance in the countries neighbouring its borders.
Tension has been rising between Russia and Western countries, who fear Russia plans to invade its neighbour Ukraine.
Russia denies this, but says Nato must rule out Ukraine and others ever joining Nato to defuse the situation.
Moscow wants urgent talks with the US – but its proposals are being viewed as a non-starter in Washington.
A fighting force of almost a million regular soldiers and reservists is on alert because of the constant threat of a Putin-ordered invasion
For Denis Semyrog-Orlyk, it is not a question of whether the Russians will invade Ukraine, but when. On a cold, drizzly evening last week, the affable 46-year-old architect was sitting with fellow members of the 130th battalion of the Ukrainian Territorial Defence Forces in a hut on the outskirts of Kiev, taking lessons on how to stop the invaders in their tracks.
The Ukrainian capital, a bustling place of picturesque golden domed churches and horrendous traffic jams, does not feel like a city on the verge of war. There are no signs of panic buying; no mass exodus to the countryside. The estimated 100,000 Russian troops positioned menacingly on the country’s northern, eastern and southern borders feel far away.
For Misha Novitskyi, the question of whether Russia will invade Ukraine is not theoretical. The enemy is just 50 metres away behind a concrete slab. From time to time Russian voices float eerily across a wintry no man’s land of ragged trees and scrub.
“When they light their stoves you can see the smoke,” Novitskyi – a senior lieutenant in the Ukrainian army – said, speaking from what is in effect Europe’s eastern front with Russia. He added: “Every day they shoot at us.”
The conflict between Kyiv and pro-Russian separatists has gone on for nearly eight long years. There are first world war echoes. Both sides face off along a fixed 250-mile “border” or line of contact which snakes across Ukraine’s Donbas region.
Also… How a Russian invasion of Ukraine could spill over into Europe
A senior Western intelligence official has warned that if Russia decides to invade Ukraine, a conflict could spill over further into Europe.
Speaking to journalists, including the BBC, the senior intelligence official, who asked not to be named, said: “Let’s not be blind. If Russia initiates a scenario of any kind it will also initiate action against Nato members”.
“To think war could be contained to one nation would be foolish,” they added.
Those concerns have been echoed by Britain’s most senior military officer.
“Opponents of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which was recently completed, argue it would make Russia less reliant on the Ukrainian gas pipeline network, potentially stripping a key deterrent to invasion, according to The Wilson Center. Nord Stream 2 would remove both a key revenue source from Ukraine and a powerful tool the nation has in defending itself against Russian aggression.”
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden said this week the U.S. would take a more direct role in diplomacy to address Vladimir Putin’s concerns over Ukraine and Europe, part of a broader effort to dissuade the Russian leader from a destabilizing invasion of Ukraine.
But any negotiations to peacefully resolve Europe’s tangled East-West rivalries will present minefields for the U.S. president.
Administration officials have suggested that the U.S. will press Ukraine to formally cede a measure of autonomy to eastern Ukrainian lands now controlled by Russia-backed separatists who rose up against Kyiv in 2014. An undefined “special status” for those areas was laid out in an ambiguous, European-brokered peace deal in 2015, but it has never taken hold.
US President Joe Biden has said that putting American troops on the ground in Ukraine in the event of a Russian invasion is “not on the table”.
But Mr Biden warned of severe consequences if Russia did invade.
He was speaking a day after two hours of talks by video link with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
‘Speak Loudly And Carry A Small Stick’: Republicans Blast Biden’s Response To Putin’s Escalation In Ukraine
Republicans blasted President Joe Biden’s efforts to prevent a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine as “weak” and “embarrassing” hours after Biden held a call Tuesday with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Republicans from all corners of the party criticized Biden after he only threatened an economic response should Russia move forward with an invasion of Ukraine. Both White House press secretary Jen Psaki and national security adviser Jake Sullivan refused to state whether the U.S. or NATO would be willing to take direct military action to defend Ukraine.
President Joe Biden held a virtual summit meeting that lasted two hours with Russian president Vladimir Putin on Tuesday amid mounting military tensions over Ukraine. Though the Biden administration has been eager to focus on China rather than Russia, Putin is adroitly ensuring that Moscow remains a central player in world politics. The summit itself was a potent sign of the Kremlin’s influence.
“Greetings, Mr. President!” Putin reportedly said at the start of the call. “Good to see you again,” Biden responded. “Unfortunately last time we didn’t get to see one another at the G20. I am hoping next time we meet we do it in person.”
A massive build-up of Russian troops along the Ukrainian border is fueling speculation of an imminent invasion. Western leaders have warned Russian President Vladimir Putin against military action, but, especially after the catastrophic American withdrawal from Afghanistan, they appear divided and weak and may be unable to stop him.
A Russian invasion of Ukraine, if successful, would expand Moscow’s sphere of influence along its western border and pave the way for Eastern Europe and the Baltics to come under Russian domination once again.
Will Russia invade? I have my doubts. Maybe the intent is to widen the growing schisms within NATO by warlike posturing. I doubt the majority of NATO members would go to war over Ukraine and that will at the least herald the beginning of the end of the alliance. That may be Putin’s immediate goal, neatly accomplished without need of an invasion.
U.S. and NATO officials have warned in recent weeks about a new spurt of Russian military activity on the easternmost side of the Russian-Ukrainian border. According to the most recent estimates, around 90,000-100,000 Russian troops are arrayed along the border zone. Though this number is down from the roughly 150,000 Russian personnel who took part in Moscow’s springtime buildup, military experts and Western intelligence sources have expressed alarm over the “unusual” and “out of cycle” nature of the recent movements. The Kremlin’s full intentions remain unknown, which is the way Russian president Vladimir Putin likes it.
Canada, the United States and Britain should jointly and swiftly provide military support to Ukraine in its standoff with Russia, Ukraine’s defence minister said in an interview, warning that steps to deter Russian President Vladimir Putin from invading were necessary now because “it will be too late after.”
Oleksii Reznikov said he detected a split within the NATO military alliance over how far to go in supporting Ukraine. Canada, the U.S., and Britain were more willing to challenge Mr. Putin’s aggressive behaviour, he said, while countries like Germany and France were hesitant because they were concerned about maintaining their economic relationships with Russia.
Go incognito
The only serious problem that Russia could pose to the West is precisely the one that U.S. Democrats have created: instead of outbidding China for Russia’s goodwill (without giving in to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s expansionist ambitions), the constant demonization of Russia by the American left, and even some Republicans, is pushing it into the arms of China.
A Russian anti-satellite weapon forced American astronauts on the International Space Station into the space equivalent of hiding in a bunker last week, showing just how disturbingly vulnerable the U.S. is in space.
The weapon, a direct-ascent anti-satellite missile, was launched with no warning to America and struck an old satellite during a demonstration. The impact created a massive debris field of more than 1,500 pieces, any of which could do devastating damage to the orbital infrastructure upon which the American military depends.
Soon after Special Counsel John Durham indicted Igor Danchenko, the “Primary Sub-Source” of the Steele dossier, on five counts of lying to the FBI, the press paused to feign a moment of public introspection. The corrupt media’s attempt to frame their failings as mere confirmation bias, however, holds no truer than the Russia-collusion hoax they peddled for five years.
The US has accused Russia of “dangerous and irresponsible behavior” after it conducted an anti-satellite weapons test that forced astronauts on the International Space Station to prepare for evacuation.
Russia fired a missile at one of its own satellites over the weekend, generating more than 1,500 pieces of trackable orbital debris and hundreds of pieces of smaller debris, which the US said “now threaten the interests of all nations”.
Astronauts aboard the ISS floated into special “lifeboat” pods following the release of the debris. The pods can detach from the ISS and fly crews back to Earth.
Turkey has been a NATO ally since 1952. On October 6, NATO’s childishly naïve secretary-general, Jens Stoltenberg, praised Turkey as “an important ally [that] played an important role in defeating Daesh.” Both of his suggestions are grossly incorrect: Turkey is becoming an important Russian ally, not a NATO ally, whose irregular militia allies in Syria are the jihadist remnants of Daesh (Islamic State).
Like a spurned lover, deeply offended by President Joe Biden’s refusal to meet him on the sidelines of September’s UN General Assembly meeting in New York, Turkey’s Islamist President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan rushed to the Black Sea town of Sochi, Russia, on September 29 for a tête-a-tête with Russian President Vladimir Putin. On his way back from New York, Erdoğan told reporters, “the signs are not good in Turkey’s relations with the United States.”
