• Russian brinkmanship leaves clear message for Ukraine and allies

    From slider@1:229/2 to All on Friday, April 23, 2021 14:25:19
    From: slider@anashram.com

    As Russia’s soldiers begin to pull back from the Ukrainian border, they
    leave not just tank tracks and footprints in the mud — but a message to Ukraine and its western supporters that Moscow remains a threat to
    Europe’s south-eastern flank.

    Russia’s announcement on Thursday that it would wind down its military build-up eased fears that the Kremlin was planning for a full-scale confrontation with Kyiv.

    https://www.ft.com/content/65e2bdb6-6c1d-4033-b677-a07bb34716ae

    The two nations have been mired in conflict since 2014, when Moscow-backed separatists started a war in Ukraine’s Donbas region and Russia annexed Crimea. Meanwhile, a peace accord signed in Minsk in 2015 has stalled over Kyiv’s reluctance to give the separatist-controlled areas autonomy in its constitution and Moscow’s refusal to give Ukraine back control over its border before a handover of power in the Donbas.

    But with Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president, pleading this month for Nato membership and this week inviting Vladimir Putin to meet him in the conflict zone, the signal from the Russian leader was clear: Moscow still
    calls the shots in the Donbas.

    Zelensky’s offer to meet Putin was a tacit acknowledgment that Ukraine
    cannot renege on the Minsk deal, said Michael Kofman, a senior research scientist at CNA, a US policy studies non-profit.

    “They very much wanted to convince Zelensky that Kyiv needs to change
    policy course,” he said. “They really wanted to make Kyiv sweat and . . . to show Ukrainians exactly what they can do to them eventually —
    that Ukraine will ultimately be largely on its own and that this is a
    reality his administration needs to face.”

    Putin’s build-up also showed the west “that from unfriendly rhetoric and escalation there is a price. And the price is a risk of real conflict,
    which nobody wants. The Kremlin’s words were heard,” said Alexander
    Baunov, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Moscow Center.

    The build-up may have convinced US president Joe Biden to de-escalate
    tensions with Russia after Washington introduced new sanctions against
    Moscow and warned of “consequences” if opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who has been on hunger strike in a Russian jail, died in prison, Baunov
    said.

    As the build-up began, Biden outraged Moscow by calling Putin a “killer”. Weeks later, the US president invited Putin to a bilateral summit — indicating that, for all the new western sanctions against it, Moscow is
    still welcome at the top table.

    Reducing the pressure a day after Putin warned the west against crossing Russia’s red lines showed that the Kremlin “understood that the level of escalation reached was suitable, but that they need to pull back a little
    to meet Biden’s proposal”, Baunov said. “Putin wants to meet Biden and to try to charm him.”

    Russia’s military drills went far beyond any operation Moscow had
    previously conducted on the Ukrainian border since the signing of the
    Minsk deal. In recent weeks, Moscow moved 100,000 troops to the border
    with Ukraine from the east and the south, as well as tanks, aircraft,
    naval forces, field hospitals and electronic warfare equipment.

    Ceasefire breaches on the front line also rapidly increased, adding to the
    more than 14,000 people already killed in the war.

    The deployment gave Moscow enough military power to potentially conduct a fairly substantial military operation in Ukraine while keeping its
    intentions sufficiently vague to scare Zelensky, who called on Putin to
    agree to restore the ceasefire.

    “The Russian problem was that the Ukrainians need to change course. And
    part of the reason they’re on this course is because they’re being backed by Europeans and Americans into believing that they can just maintain this position,” Kofman said.

    Even as Russia’s troops withdraw, Moscow still has the option of
    ratcheting up the pressure on Ukraine in the future. Defence minister
    Sergei Shoigu said Russia’s 41st combined arms army would leave its
    equipment and weapons at a base near the Ukrainian border ahead of joint military drills with Belarus this summer.

    In recent months, Kyiv has sought to build up an alternative negotiating framework known as the Crimea platform, which will hold a summit in August
    to discuss reversing Russia’s annexation of the peninsula. More than 10 mostly western countries as well as Turkey are believed to have expressed
    a willingness to take part.

    Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to Zelensky’s chief of staff Andriy Yermak, said the border build-up had been a “strategic bluff” aimed at putting pressure on Ukraine to make concessions. “Russia does not have the
    physical capability to wage war against Ukraine,” Arestovych said.

    He suggested the drills were aimed at distracting domestic attention from Russia’s slumping economy and boosting patriotic sentiment ahead of parliamentary elections in September.

    But western powers’ reluctance to match Putin’s show of force on Ukraine’s
    eastern border may make Zelensky’s search for an alternative resolution to the conflict less tenable, Alyona Getmanchuk, director of Kyiv-based
    think-tank New Europe Center, said.

    “[The troop withdrawal] strengthens an argument that Putin didn’t have an intention to invade but was using his trademark sabre-rattling tactics in
    order to reach some diplomatic gains,” Getmanchuk said.

    But if Ukraine’s western allies avoided the Crimea platform summit
    following the Russian manoeuvring or failed to back its Nato aspirations,
    she added, “Putin will find his military tactics successful and will
    repeat it again and again in the future.”

    ### - and there ya have it folks heh, situation resolved because ukraine
    isn't prepared to call russia out on their own coz they know they'll get clobbered and prolly lose even more territory if they have a go at them...

    ukraine ever joining nato now a forgotten/lost cause because the russians
    can just sit there forever if needs be, and because no one wants ww3 over
    a tin-pot nation like ukraine...

    so then, not so much grandstanding on russia's part but that of
    saber-rattling, their red lines clearly marked (and now remarked) for
    anyone to see!

    that although they've pulled their forces back it's not really the
    russians in this instance who're 'backing-down', but the west whose
    perhaps thought better of their plan to expand nato ever further via
    ukraine...

    but then those ruskies always 'were' masterful chess players huh...

    anyway, looks like our gambit just didn't pay off and it's all back to
    square one again, and wingeing/whining ukraine can just fuck off hah! :))))

    cool :)

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)
  • From o'Mahoney@1:229/2 to All on Monday, May 03, 2021 18:28:52
    From: libertidad@south.south.com

    Talk about self delusion. Read the following for a master class :)

    Esp. the "commentary" by master strategist, Brian Ahern.

    lol


    On Fri, 23 Apr 2021 14:25:19 +0100, slider <slider@anashram.com>
    wrote:

    As Russia’s soldiers begin to pull back from the Ukrainian border, they >leave not just tank tracks and footprints in the mud — but a message to >Ukraine and its western supporters that Moscow remains a threat to
    Europe’s south-eastern flank.

    Russia’s announcement on Thursday that it would wind down its military >build-up eased fears that the Kremlin was planning for a full-scale >confrontation with Kyiv.

    https://www.ft.com/content/65e2bdb6-6c1d-4033-b677-a07bb34716ae

    The two nations have been mired in conflict since 2014, when Moscow-backed >separatists started a war in Ukraine’s Donbas region and Russia annexed >Crimea. Meanwhile, a peace accord signed in Minsk in 2015 has stalled over >Kyiv’s reluctance to give the separatist-controlled areas autonomy in its >constitution and Moscow’s refusal to give Ukraine back control over its >border before a handover of power in the Donbas.

    But with Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president, pleading this month for >Nato membership and this week inviting Vladimir Putin to meet him in the >conflict zone, the signal from the Russian leader was clear: Moscow still >calls the shots in the Donbas.

    Zelensky’s offer to meet Putin was a tacit acknowledgment that Ukraine >cannot renege on the Minsk deal, said Michael Kofman, a senior research >scientist at CNA, a US policy studies non-profit.

    “They very much wanted to convince Zelensky that Kyiv needs to change >policy course,” he said. “They really wanted to make Kyiv sweat
    and . . . to show Ukrainians exactly what they can do to them eventually — >that Ukraine will ultimately be largely on its own and that this is a
    reality his administration needs to face.”

    Putin’s build-up also showed the west “that from unfriendly rhetoric and >escalation there is a price. And the price is a risk of real conflict,
    which nobody wants. The Kremlin’s words were heard,” said Alexander >Baunov, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Moscow Center.

    The build-up may have convinced US president Joe Biden to de-escalate >tensions with Russia after Washington introduced new sanctions against
    Moscow and warned of “consequences” if opposition leader Alexei Navalny, >who has been on hunger strike in a Russian jail, died in prison, Baunov
    said.

    As the build-up began, Biden outraged Moscow by calling Putin a “killer”. >Weeks later, the US president invited Putin to a bilateral summit — >indicating that, for all the new western sanctions against it, Moscow is >still welcome at the top table.

    Reducing the pressure a day after Putin warned the west against crossing >Russia’s red lines showed that the Kremlin “understood that the level of >escalation reached was suitable, but that they need to pull back a little
    to meet Biden’s proposal”, Baunov said. “Putin wants to meet Biden and to
    try to charm him.”

    Russia’s military drills went far beyond any operation Moscow had >previously conducted on the Ukrainian border since the signing of the
    Minsk deal. In recent weeks, Moscow moved 100,000 troops to the border
    with Ukraine from the east and the south, as well as tanks, aircraft,
    naval forces, field hospitals and electronic warfare equipment.

    Ceasefire breaches on the front line also rapidly increased, adding to the >more than 14,000 people already killed in the war.

    The deployment gave Moscow enough military power to potentially conduct a >fairly substantial military operation in Ukraine while keeping its
    intentions sufficiently vague to scare Zelensky, who called on Putin to
    agree to restore the ceasefire.

    “The Russian problem was that the Ukrainians need to change course. And >part of the reason they’re on this course is because they’re being backed >by Europeans and Americans into believing that they can just maintain this >position,” Kofman said.

    Even as Russia’s troops withdraw, Moscow still has the option of
    ratcheting up the pressure on Ukraine in the future. Defence minister
    Sergei Shoigu said Russia’s 41st combined arms army would leave its >equipment and weapons at a base near the Ukrainian border ahead of joint >military drills with Belarus this summer.

    In recent months, Kyiv has sought to build up an alternative negotiating >framework known as the Crimea platform, which will hold a summit in August
    to discuss reversing Russia’s annexation of the peninsula. More than 10 >mostly western countries as well as Turkey are believed to have expressed
    a willingness to take part.

    Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to Zelensky’s chief of staff Andriy Yermak, >said the border build-up had been a “strategic bluff” aimed at putting >pressure on Ukraine to make concessions. “Russia does not have the
    physical capability to wage war against Ukraine,” Arestovych said.

    He suggested the drills were aimed at distracting domestic attention from >Russia’s slumping economy and boosting patriotic sentiment ahead of >parliamentary elections in September.

    But western powers’ reluctance to match Putin’s show of force on Ukraine’s
    eastern border may make Zelensky’s search for an alternative resolution to >the conflict less tenable, Alyona Getmanchuk, director of Kyiv-based >think-tank New Europe Center, said.

    “[The troop withdrawal] strengthens an argument that Putin didn’t have an >intention to invade but was using his trademark sabre-rattling tactics in >order to reach some diplomatic gains,” Getmanchuk said.

    But if Ukraine’s western allies avoided the Crimea platform summit >following the Russian manoeuvring or failed to back its Nato aspirations,
    she added, “Putin will find his military tactics successful and will
    repeat it again and again in the future.”

    ### - and there ya have it folks heh, situation resolved because ukraine >isn't prepared to call russia out on their own coz they know they'll get >clobbered and prolly lose even more territory if they have a go at them...

    ukraine ever joining nato now a forgotten/lost cause because the russians
    can just sit there forever if needs be, and because no one wants ww3 over
    a tin-pot nation like ukraine...

    so then, not so much grandstanding on russia's part but that of >saber-rattling, their red lines clearly marked (and now remarked) for
    anyone to see!

    that although they've pulled their forces back it's not really the
    russians in this instance who're 'backing-down', but the west whose
    perhaps thought better of their plan to expand nato ever further via >ukraine...

    but then those ruskies always 'were' masterful chess players huh...

    anyway, looks like our gambit just didn't pay off and it's all back to
    square one again, and wingeing/whining ukraine can just fuck off hah! :))))

    cool :)

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)
  • From slider@1:229/2 to All on Monday, May 03, 2021 12:45:07
    From: slider@anashram.com

    On Mon, 03 May 2021 11:28:52 +0100, o'Mahoney <libertidad@south.south.com> wrote:

    Talk about self delusion. Read the following for a master class :)

    Esp. the "commentary" by master strategist, Brian Ahern.

    lol

    ### - are you sure you even read that article correctly? (i didn't write
    that article, i merely commented on it)





    On Fri, 23 Apr 2021 14:25:19 +0100, slider <slider@anashram.com>
    wrote:

    As Russia’s soldiers begin to pull back from the Ukrainian border, they
    leave not just tank tracks and footprints in the mud — but a message to
    Ukraine and its western supporters that Moscow remains a threat to
    Europe’s south-eastern flank.

    Russia’s announcement on Thursday that it would wind down its military
    build-up eased fears that the Kremlin was planning for a full-scale
    confrontation with Kyiv.

    https://www.ft.com/content/65e2bdb6-6c1d-4033-b677-a07bb34716ae

    The two nations have been mired in conflict since 2014, when
    Moscow-backed
    separatists started a war in Ukraine’s Donbas region and Russia annexed
    Crimea. Meanwhile, a peace accord signed in Minsk in 2015 has stalled
    over
    Kyiv’s reluctance to give the separatist-controlled areas autonomy in
    its
    constitution and Moscow’s refusal to give Ukraine back control over its
    border before a handover of power in the Donbas.

    But with Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president, pleading this month
    for
    Nato membership and this week inviting Vladimir Putin to meet him in the
    conflict zone, the signal from the Russian leader was clear: Moscow
    still
    calls the shots in the Donbas.

    Zelensky’s offer to meet Putin was a tacit acknowledgment that Ukraine
    cannot renege on the Minsk deal, said Michael Kofman, a senior research
    scientist at CNA, a US policy studies non-profit.

    “They very much wanted to convince Zelensky that Kyiv needs to change
    policy course,” he said. “They really wanted to make Kyiv sweat
    and . . . to show Ukrainians exactly what they can do to them
    eventually —
    that Ukraine will ultimately be largely on its own and that this is a
    reality his administration needs to face.”

    Putin’s build-up also showed the west “that from unfriendly rhetoric and >> escalation there is a price. And the price is a risk of real conflict,
    which nobody wants. The Kremlin’s words were heard,” said Alexander
    Baunov, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Moscow Center.

    The build-up may have convinced US president Joe Biden to de-escalate
    tensions with Russia after Washington introduced new sanctions against
    Moscow and warned of “consequences” if opposition leader Alexei Navalny, >> who has been on hunger strike in a Russian jail, died in prison, Baunov
    said.

    As the build-up began, Biden outraged Moscow by calling Putin a
    “killer”.
    Weeks later, the US president invited Putin to a bilateral summit —
    indicating that, for all the new western sanctions against it, Moscow is
    still welcome at the top table.

    Reducing the pressure a day after Putin warned the west against crossing
    Russia’s red lines showed that the Kremlin “understood that the level of >> escalation reached was suitable, but that they need to pull back a
    little
    to meet Biden’s proposal”, Baunov said. “Putin wants to meet Biden and >> to
    try to charm him.”

    Russia’s military drills went far beyond any operation Moscow had
    previously conducted on the Ukrainian border since the signing of the
    Minsk deal. In recent weeks, Moscow moved 100,000 troops to the border
    with Ukraine from the east and the south, as well as tanks, aircraft,
    naval forces, field hospitals and electronic warfare equipment.

    Ceasefire breaches on the front line also rapidly increased, adding to
    the
    more than 14,000 people already killed in the war.

    The deployment gave Moscow enough military power to potentially conduct
    a
    fairly substantial military operation in Ukraine while keeping its
    intentions sufficiently vague to scare Zelensky, who called on Putin to
    agree to restore the ceasefire.

    “The Russian problem was that the Ukrainians need to change course. And
    part of the reason they’re on this course is because they’re being
    backed
    by Europeans and Americans into believing that they can just maintain
    this
    position,” Kofman said.

    Even as Russia’s troops withdraw, Moscow still has the option of
    ratcheting up the pressure on Ukraine in the future. Defence minister
    Sergei Shoigu said Russia’s 41st combined arms army would leave its
    equipment and weapons at a base near the Ukrainian border ahead of joint
    military drills with Belarus this summer.

    In recent months, Kyiv has sought to build up an alternative negotiating
    framework known as the Crimea platform, which will hold a summit in
    August
    to discuss reversing Russia’s annexation of the peninsula. More than 10
    mostly western countries as well as Turkey are believed to have
    expressed
    a willingness to take part.

    Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to Zelensky’s chief of staff Andriy
    Yermak,
    said the border build-up had been a “strategic bluff” aimed at putting >> pressure on Ukraine to make concessions. “Russia does not have the
    physical capability to wage war against Ukraine,” Arestovych said.

    He suggested the drills were aimed at distracting domestic attention
    from
    Russia’s slumping economy and boosting patriotic sentiment ahead of
    parliamentary elections in September.

    But western powers’ reluctance to match Putin’s show of force on
    Ukraine’s
    eastern border may make Zelensky’s search for an alternative resolution
    to
    the conflict less tenable, Alyona Getmanchuk, director of Kyiv-based
    think-tank New Europe Center, said.

    “[The troop withdrawal] strengthens an argument that Putin didn’t have >> an
    intention to invade but was using his trademark sabre-rattling tactics
    in
    order to reach some diplomatic gains,” Getmanchuk said.

    But if Ukraine’s western allies avoided the Crimea platform summit
    following the Russian manoeuvring or failed to back its Nato
    aspirations,
    she added, “Putin will find his military tactics successful and will
    repeat it again and again in the future.”

    ### - and there ya have it folks heh, situation resolved because ukraine
    isn't prepared to call russia out on their own coz they know they'll get
    clobbered and prolly lose even more territory if they have a go at
    them...

    ukraine ever joining nato now a forgotten/lost cause because the
    russians
    can just sit there forever if needs be, and because no one wants ww3
    over
    a tin-pot nation like ukraine...

    so then, not so much grandstanding on russia's part but that of
    saber-rattling, their red lines clearly marked (and now remarked) for
    anyone to see!

    that although they've pulled their forces back it's not really the
    russians in this instance who're 'backing-down', but the west whose
    perhaps thought better of their plan to expand nato ever further via
    ukraine...

    but then those ruskies always 'were' masterful chess players huh...

    anyway, looks like our gambit just didn't pay off and it's all back to
    square one again, and wingeing/whining ukraine can just fuck off hah!
    :))))

    cool :)


    --
    Using Opera's mail client: http://www.opera.com/mail/

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)
  • From o'Mahoney@1:229/2 to All on Friday, May 07, 2021 13:18:44
    From: libertidad@south.south.com

    On Mon, 03 May 2021 12:45:07 +0100, slider <slider@anashram.com>
    wrote:

    On Mon, 03 May 2021 11:28:52 +0100, o'Mahoney <libertidad@south.south.com> >wrote:

    Talk about self delusion. Read the following for a master class :)

    Esp. the "commentary" by master strategist, Brian Ahern.

    lol

    ### - are you sure you even read that article correctly? (i didn't write
    that article, i merely commented on it)


    I took exception to your commentary, mainly this:

    "but then those ruskies always 'were' masterful chess players huh...

    anyway, looks like our gambit just didn't pay off and it's all back
    to square one again, and wingeing/whining ukraine can just fuck off
    hah!"

    *Our gambit*? Really?

    What exactly is your stake in this, to use such an inclusive term?






    On Fri, 23 Apr 2021 14:25:19 +0100, slider <slider@anashram.com>
    wrote:

    As Russia’s soldiers begin to pull back from the Ukrainian border, they >>> leave not just tank tracks and footprints in the mud — but a message to >>> Ukraine and its western supporters that Moscow remains a threat to
    Europe’s south-eastern flank.

    Russia’s announcement on Thursday that it would wind down its military >>> build-up eased fears that the Kremlin was planning for a full-scale
    confrontation with Kyiv.

    https://www.ft.com/content/65e2bdb6-6c1d-4033-b677-a07bb34716ae

    The two nations have been mired in conflict since 2014, when
    Moscow-backed
    separatists started a war in Ukraine’s Donbas region and Russia annexed >>> Crimea. Meanwhile, a peace accord signed in Minsk in 2015 has stalled
    over
    Kyiv’s reluctance to give the separatist-controlled areas autonomy in
    its
    constitution and Moscow’s refusal to give Ukraine back control over its >>> border before a handover of power in the Donbas.

    But with Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president, pleading this month
    for
    Nato membership and this week inviting Vladimir Putin to meet him in the >>> conflict zone, the signal from the Russian leader was clear: Moscow
    still
    calls the shots in the Donbas.

    Zelensky’s offer to meet Putin was a tacit acknowledgment that Ukraine >>> cannot renege on the Minsk deal, said Michael Kofman, a senior research
    scientist at CNA, a US policy studies non-profit.

    “They very much wanted to convince Zelensky that Kyiv needs to change
    policy course,” he said. “They really wanted to make Kyiv sweat
    and . . . to show Ukrainians exactly what they can do to them
    eventually —
    that Ukraine will ultimately be largely on its own and that this is a
    reality his administration needs to face.”

    Putin’s build-up also showed the west “that from unfriendly rhetoric and
    escalation there is a price. And the price is a risk of real conflict,
    which nobody wants. The Kremlin’s words were heard,” said Alexander
    Baunov, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Moscow Center.

    The build-up may have convinced US president Joe Biden to de-escalate
    tensions with Russia after Washington introduced new sanctions against
    Moscow and warned of “consequences” if opposition leader Alexei Navalny,
    who has been on hunger strike in a Russian jail, died in prison, Baunov
    said.

    As the build-up began, Biden outraged Moscow by calling Putin a
    “killer”.
    Weeks later, the US president invited Putin to a bilateral summit —
    indicating that, for all the new western sanctions against it, Moscow is >>> still welcome at the top table.

    Reducing the pressure a day after Putin warned the west against crossing >>> Russia’s red lines showed that the Kremlin “understood that the level of
    escalation reached was suitable, but that they need to pull back a
    little
    to meet Biden’s proposal”, Baunov said. “Putin wants to meet Biden and
    to
    try to charm him.”

    Russia’s military drills went far beyond any operation Moscow had
    previously conducted on the Ukrainian border since the signing of the
    Minsk deal. In recent weeks, Moscow moved 100,000 troops to the border
    with Ukraine from the east and the south, as well as tanks, aircraft,
    naval forces, field hospitals and electronic warfare equipment.

    Ceasefire breaches on the front line also rapidly increased, adding to
    the
    more than 14,000 people already killed in the war.

    The deployment gave Moscow enough military power to potentially conduct
    a
    fairly substantial military operation in Ukraine while keeping its
    intentions sufficiently vague to scare Zelensky, who called on Putin to
    agree to restore the ceasefire.

    “The Russian problem was that the Ukrainians need to change course. And >>> part of the reason they’re on this course is because they’re being
    backed
    by Europeans and Americans into believing that they can just maintain
    this
    position,” Kofman said.

    Even as Russia’s troops withdraw, Moscow still has the option of
    ratcheting up the pressure on Ukraine in the future. Defence minister
    Sergei Shoigu said Russia’s 41st combined arms army would leave its
    equipment and weapons at a base near the Ukrainian border ahead of joint >>> military drills with Belarus this summer.

    In recent months, Kyiv has sought to build up an alternative negotiating >>> framework known as the Crimea platform, which will hold a summit in
    August
    to discuss reversing Russia’s annexation of the peninsula. More than 10 >>> mostly western countries as well as Turkey are believed to have
    expressed
    a willingness to take part.

    Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to Zelensky’s chief of staff Andriy
    Yermak,
    said the border build-up had been a “strategic bluff” aimed at putting >>> pressure on Ukraine to make concessions. “Russia does not have the
    physical capability to wage war against Ukraine,” Arestovych said.

    He suggested the drills were aimed at distracting domestic attention
    from
    Russia’s slumping economy and boosting patriotic sentiment ahead of
    parliamentary elections in September.

    But western powers’ reluctance to match Putin’s show of force on
    Ukraine’s
    eastern border may make Zelensky’s search for an alternative resolution >>> to
    the conflict less tenable, Alyona Getmanchuk, director of Kyiv-based
    think-tank New Europe Center, said.

    “[The troop withdrawal] strengthens an argument that Putin didn’t have >>> an
    intention to invade but was using his trademark sabre-rattling tactics
    in
    order to reach some diplomatic gains,” Getmanchuk said.

    But if Ukraine’s western allies avoided the Crimea platform summit
    following the Russian manoeuvring or failed to back its Nato
    aspirations,
    she added, “Putin will find his military tactics successful and will
    repeat it again and again in the future.”

    ### - and there ya have it folks heh, situation resolved because ukraine >>> isn't prepared to call russia out on their own coz they know they'll get >>> clobbered and prolly lose even more territory if they have a go at
    them...

    ukraine ever joining nato now a forgotten/lost cause because the
    russians
    can just sit there forever if needs be, and because no one wants ww3
    over
    a tin-pot nation like ukraine...

    so then, not so much grandstanding on russia's part but that of
    saber-rattling, their red lines clearly marked (and now remarked) for
    anyone to see!

    that although they've pulled their forces back it's not really the
    russians in this instance who're 'backing-down', but the west whose
    perhaps thought better of their plan to expand nato ever further via
    ukraine...

    but then those ruskies always 'were' masterful chess players huh...

    anyway, looks like our gambit just didn't pay off and it's all back to
    square one again, and wingeing/whining ukraine can just fuck off hah!
    :))))

    cool :)

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)
  • From slider@1:229/2 to All on Friday, May 07, 2021 07:01:00
    From: slider@anashram.com

    On Fri, 07 May 2021 06:18:44 +0100, o'Mahoney <libertidad@south.south.com> wrote:

    On Mon, 03 May 2021 12:45:07 +0100, slider <slider@anashram.com>
    wrote:

    On Mon, 03 May 2021 11:28:52 +0100, o'Mahoney
    <libertidad@south.south.com>
    wrote:

    Talk about self delusion. Read the following for a master class :)

    Esp. the "commentary" by master strategist, Brian Ahern.

    lol

    ### - are you sure you even read that article correctly? (i didn't write
    that article, i merely commented on it)


    I took exception to your commentary, mainly this:

    "but then those ruskies always 'were' masterful chess players huh...

    anyway, looks like our gambit just didn't pay off and it's all back
    to square one again, and wingeing/whining ukraine can just fuck off
    hah!"

    *Our gambit*? Really?

    What exactly is your stake in this, to use such an inclusive term?

    ### - "our gambit" = 'the west' as opposed to the russians...

    the russian having quite a good rep for chess no?





    On Fri, 23 Apr 2021 14:25:19 +0100, slider <slider@anashram.com>
    wrote:

    As Russia’s soldiers begin to pull back from the Ukrainian border,
    they
    leave not just tank tracks and footprints in the mud — but a message >>>> to
    Ukraine and its western supporters that Moscow remains a threat to
    Europe’s south-eastern flank.

    Russia’s announcement on Thursday that it would wind down its military >>>> build-up eased fears that the Kremlin was planning for a full-scale
    confrontation with Kyiv.

    https://www.ft.com/content/65e2bdb6-6c1d-4033-b677-a07bb34716ae

    The two nations have been mired in conflict since 2014, when
    Moscow-backed
    separatists started a war in Ukraine’s Donbas region and Russia
    annexed
    Crimea. Meanwhile, a peace accord signed in Minsk in 2015 has stalled
    over
    Kyiv’s reluctance to give the separatist-controlled areas autonomy in >>>> its
    constitution and Moscow’s refusal to give Ukraine back control over
    its
    border before a handover of power in the Donbas.

    But with Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president, pleading this month >>>> for
    Nato membership and this week inviting Vladimir Putin to meet him in
    the
    conflict zone, the signal from the Russian leader was clear: Moscow
    still
    calls the shots in the Donbas.

    Zelensky’s offer to meet Putin was a tacit acknowledgment that Ukraine >>>> cannot renege on the Minsk deal, said Michael Kofman, a senior
    research
    scientist at CNA, a US policy studies non-profit.

    “They very much wanted to convince Zelensky that Kyiv needs to change >>>> policy course,” he said. “They really wanted to make Kyiv sweat
    and . . . to show Ukrainians exactly what they can do to them
    eventually —
    that Ukraine will ultimately be largely on its own and that this is a
    reality his administration needs to face.”

    Putin’s build-up also showed the west “that from unfriendly rhetoric >>>> and
    escalation there is a price. And the price is a risk of real conflict, >>>> which nobody wants. The Kremlin’s words were heard,” said Alexander >>>> Baunov, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Moscow Center.

    The build-up may have convinced US president Joe Biden to de-escalate
    tensions with Russia after Washington introduced new sanctions against >>>> Moscow and warned of “consequences” if opposition leader Alexei
    Navalny,
    who has been on hunger strike in a Russian jail, died in prison,
    Baunov
    said.

    As the build-up began, Biden outraged Moscow by calling Putin a
    “killer”.
    Weeks later, the US president invited Putin to a bilateral summit —
    indicating that, for all the new western sanctions against it, Moscow
    is
    still welcome at the top table.

    Reducing the pressure a day after Putin warned the west against
    crossing
    Russia’s red lines showed that the Kremlin “understood that the level >>>> of
    escalation reached was suitable, but that they need to pull back a
    little
    to meet Biden’s proposal”, Baunov said. “Putin wants to meet Biden and
    to
    try to charm him.”

    Russia’s military drills went far beyond any operation Moscow had
    previously conducted on the Ukrainian border since the signing of the
    Minsk deal. In recent weeks, Moscow moved 100,000 troops to the border >>>> with Ukraine from the east and the south, as well as tanks, aircraft,
    naval forces, field hospitals and electronic warfare equipment.

    Ceasefire breaches on the front line also rapidly increased, adding to >>>> the
    more than 14,000 people already killed in the war.

    The deployment gave Moscow enough military power to potentially
    conduct
    a
    fairly substantial military operation in Ukraine while keeping its
    intentions sufficiently vague to scare Zelensky, who called on Putin
    to
    agree to restore the ceasefire.

    “The Russian problem was that the Ukrainians need to change course.
    And
    part of the reason they’re on this course is because they’re being >>>> backed
    by Europeans and Americans into believing that they can just maintain
    this
    position,” Kofman said.

    Even as Russia’s troops withdraw, Moscow still has the option of
    ratcheting up the pressure on Ukraine in the future. Defence minister
    Sergei Shoigu said Russia’s 41st combined arms army would leave its
    equipment and weapons at a base near the Ukrainian border ahead of
    joint
    military drills with Belarus this summer.

    In recent months, Kyiv has sought to build up an alternative
    negotiating
    framework known as the Crimea platform, which will hold a summit in
    August
    to discuss reversing Russia’s annexation of the peninsula. More than >>>> 10
    mostly western countries as well as Turkey are believed to have
    expressed
    a willingness to take part.

    Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to Zelensky’s chief of staff Andriy
    Yermak,
    said the border build-up had been a “strategic bluff” aimed at putting >>>> pressure on Ukraine to make concessions. “Russia does not have the
    physical capability to wage war against Ukraine,” Arestovych said.

    He suggested the drills were aimed at distracting domestic attention
    from
    Russia’s slumping economy and boosting patriotic sentiment ahead of
    parliamentary elections in September.

    But western powers’ reluctance to match Putin’s show of force on
    Ukraine’s
    eastern border may make Zelensky’s search for an alternative
    resolution
    to
    the conflict less tenable, Alyona Getmanchuk, director of Kyiv-based
    think-tank New Europe Center, said.

    “[The troop withdrawal] strengthens an argument that Putin didn’t have >>>> an
    intention to invade but was using his trademark sabre-rattling tactics >>>> in
    order to reach some diplomatic gains,” Getmanchuk said.

    But if Ukraine’s western allies avoided the Crimea platform summit
    following the Russian manoeuvring or failed to back its Nato
    aspirations,
    she added, “Putin will find his military tactics successful and will >>>> repeat it again and again in the future.”

    ### - and there ya have it folks heh, situation resolved because
    ukraine
    isn't prepared to call russia out on their own coz they know they'll
    get
    clobbered and prolly lose even more territory if they have a go at
    them...

    ukraine ever joining nato now a forgotten/lost cause because the
    russians
    can just sit there forever if needs be, and because no one wants ww3
    over
    a tin-pot nation like ukraine...

    so then, not so much grandstanding on russia's part but that of
    saber-rattling, their red lines clearly marked (and now remarked) for
    anyone to see!

    that although they've pulled their forces back it's not really the
    russians in this instance who're 'backing-down', but the west whose
    perhaps thought better of their plan to expand nato ever further via
    ukraine...

    but then those ruskies always 'were' masterful chess players huh...

    anyway, looks like our gambit just didn't pay off and it's all back to >>>> square one again, and wingeing/whining ukraine can just fuck off hah!
    :))))

    cool :)

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)