November 02, 2021
Yesterday the Washington Post as well as Politico were again engaging in warmongering disinformation.
Both claimed that Russian troops are amassing at the Ukrainian border.
The Post wrote:
A renewed buildup of Russian troops near the Ukrainian border has raised concern among some officials in the United States and Europe who are tracking what they consider irregular movements of equipment and personnel on Russia’s western flank.
Politico headlined:
Satellite images show new Russian military buildup near Ukraine
But while the headline of the piece say "near Ukraine" the text actually places the pictured troops "near the Russian town of Yelnya close to the border of Belarus."
"Which is it?" one might ask. It could of course be both as Belarus and Ukraine are neighboring countries. But a look at a map shows that the real answer is "neither".
Yelnya is about halfway between Moscow and Minsk. The distance from Yelnya to the border of Belarus is some 60 miles or 100 kilometer. The distance to the Ukrainian border is about 150 miles or 250 kilometers. Yelnya is a regular Russian army training ground and the troops said to be there there are all units from Russia's western military district. To see those troops there, even in larger formations, is normal.
That is why even the Ukrainian defense ministry says that it has seen nothing it is concerned about:
Ukraine's defence ministry on Monday denied a media report of a Russian military buildup near its border, saying it had not observed an increase in forces or weaponry.The Washington Post said at the weekend a renewed buildup of Russian troops near the Ukrainian border had raised concern among some officials in the United States and Europe who are tracking what they consider irregular movements of equipment and personnel on Russia's western flank.
The Ukrainian defense ministry rejects the Washington Post claim of "irregular movements of equipment and personnel" in Russia and even called it "disinformation" (machine translation):
According to the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, as of November 1, 2021, no additional transfer of Russian units, weapons and military equipment to the state border with Ukraine has been recorded.It is most probable that the facts published in the media and on the Internet about the increase of groups of the Russian Armed Forces in the Ukrainian direction are an element of special informational and psychological actions, and are essentially planned measures to relocate troops after training.
There are of course new tension between the Ukraine and Russia. The Ukraine has bought Turkish Bayraktar drones and allegedly recently used one in an attack on an artillery piece in the renegade Donbas region:
The strike prompted a wave of alarm in Moscow. “I would like to mention once again that the conflict in southeastern Ukraine has no military solution, as was acknowledged by all those countries that so much fret over civilians and, generally, the situation in Ukraine. The attempts to settle it by force will have very deplorable and somewhat incalculable but generally tragic consequences,” said Russia’s Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova.
There have also been artillery strikes on civil areas in Donbas and a Ukrainian takeover of a small hamlet in the demilitarized zone.
These are provocations designed to divert the Ukrainian public from the rather catastrophic economic situation Kiev is in.
The Saker asserted recently that a war over the Donbas region may be inevitable as it is in the interest of the 'west' as well as in the interest of current Ukrainian government.
I do not agree with that analysis. The Ukraine, even with silent help from NATO, would of course lose a war over Donbas. All the 'western' claims of supporting the Ukraine and all the U.S. maneuvers near Russia would then be exposed as empty talk and bluffs. Other U.S. clients, think Taiwan, would add that to the U.S. retreat from Afghanistan and the defeat of the U.S. sponsored opposition in Hong Kong and recognize that they can not trust any assurance coming out of Washington DC.
To be again exposed as toothless loudmouths would be another disaster for U.S. foreign policy. Joe Biden is too experienced to let that happen on his watch.
Then again - we have seen lots of nonsense coming from the White House, State Department and Pentagon.
Today the Ukrainian defense minister Andriy Taran suddenly resigned. No reasons were given. Did he receive orders he did not like?
Posted by b on November 2, 2021 at 18:21 UTC | Permalink