via PBS.
A man rides a bicycle past armored vehicles holding Ukrainian army soldiers in the eastern Ukrainian town of Volnovakha on Thursday. Photo by Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP/Getty ImagesEuropean leaders are silent.
Pro-Russian rebels attacked a military checkpoint in eastern Ukraine on Thursday, killing 13 Ukrainian soldiers, in one of the most violent incidents of the past few weeks as the country heads toward presidential elections this weekend.
The rebels fired automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades at the checkpoint, hitting an ammunition stash in one of the vehicles, which exploded, according to the Ukrainian Defense Ministry, reported theAssociated Press. The incident took place outside the town of Volnovakha near the restive eastern city of Donetsk.
The US leader seems uninterested (probably with good reason...this is a European problem).
Everyone hides behind the NATO General Secretary...and that institution is useless. It allows inactivity to be seen as activity. They're literally doing nothing of substance.
I've said before and this reinforces that opinion.
Ukraine is lost and before this is over we will cheer Russian soldiers rushing in to provide stability.
SIDENOTE: The world is losing its mind! Ukraine is headed toward implosion, Thailand is in the midst of a coup, China is facing off against the Philippines and Vietnam, Russia vetoed potential resolution to the Syria crisis, Egypt is returning to a militarized police state (not necessarily a bad thing from a US perspective), Libya is headed to an outright civil war, Terrorist are running wild in Africa (check out Nigeria!) and that is just off the top of my head..
I don't expect Russian military involvement. It would be bad PR and Russia expects to get its way via other means.
ReplyDeleteRegarding Libya, General (ret.) Haftar is CIA. He lived near Langley for twenty years in between his Libya stints. He sided with Gaddafi years ago, then broke with him and linked up with the company, arrived back in Libya coincidentally with Chris Stevens to fight Gaddafi, Haftar didn't do well and fell out of favor, and now he's baaack.
Reminds me of that old scene in Star Wars after Han wakes up, He says, "How we doing kid?" Luke says, "oh about usual." Han says, "that bad huh?"
ReplyDeletePutin and the Russian's don't give a sheet about PR, Russian's are cold hearted bass turds and get the hammer and sickle out fast then everything looks like rows of wheat or nails.
@Zebra Dun
DeleteActually, Russia is taking the US to the woodshed on this one with its masterful PR. The US can't even line up its EU puppets on sanctions, with Nuland's "F the EU" no doubt having an effect.
The larger issue is that military operations mean nothing if the PR war is lost.
I agree with Zebra, Russians don't care about PR. They lost international PR battle at start of Crimea annexation, when they start to threat other nations and even the next King of GB on official level they are not only lost, this is just the biggest epic fail in history of epic fails.
DeleteBut Russians don't give a shit about international PR... the only shit they give is about inside PR, that was a usual job from Soviet times to brainwash Russian citizens and take full control of them. Who cares if 90% of world think about them as crazy bandits... the only thing that mater is Russian citizens who support the gov and support of oligarchs. Rest of the world can burn.
I sincerely hope Russia isnt behind this partucular attack or held responsible n some way for this attack. It will put enormous pressure on decision makers on both sides of the atlantic to also intervene militarily since Russia with this attack drew first blood on soldiers of a sovereign state. And when western leaders will be forced to respond militarily, the easiest way for them will be to send in their Spec Ops chaps again. How good or bad that move will be is hignly debatable and should be discussed.
DeleteSo, as it's often said: a short victorious war is the best PR for own people. That thing is uniting people. When there is an external enemy then folk forget about other problems in own state. The current situation is Russia closes itself from the whole world. The external world now is like the hell in mind of TV.
ReplyDeleteOne of the classic trick old as world itself. When you start to have problem inside, find or create some problems outside to occupy people with it. Support for Putin rule drop like hell in last years and in mere moments... "Fascist! Fascist everywhere!" and support for him sky high again.
DeleteGuys, I'm sorry for my English.
Deleteyour english is fine. i only speak one language so i'm always impressed by people that speak more than one.
DeleteYes Shas, I agree with you. Make them your enemy then destroy them, it's just like business.
DeleteThanks Sol. I just think sometimes that I write something unclear.
Delete