One hundred and fifty American
paratroopers from the 173rd Infantry Brigade Combat
Team landed in Poland today and an additional 450 soldiers are
set to arrive and begin conducting military exercises in Estonia,
Latvia and Lithuania by next Monday.
“It’s a very tangible representation of our commitment to our
security obligations in Europe, and the message is to the people of
those countries and to the alliance that we do take it seriously,”
said Defense Department Press Secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby.
“We’re looking at trying to keep this rotational presence
persistent throughout the rest of this year.”
According to Politico, the White House is considering
piling on even more sanctions against Russia for its role in
destabilizing Ukraine.
A group of diplomats including Secretary of State John Kerry met
in Geneva last week and hammered out an agreement to “de-escalate”
the crisis in Ukraine. Six days later, the situation has only
gotten worse.
Yesterday, a Ukrainian politician, Vladimir Rybak, and another
man were found dead near the separatist-occupied city of Sloviansk.
The Ukrainian government alleges that
separatists “tortured to death” the two men, prompting
the government to resume the “anti-terrorist” operation it was
conducting before the Geneva agreement.
And, there’s a growing list of people being taken hostage by
militant separatists. Simon Ostrovosky, an American journalist with
Vice was briefly
detained after a press conference with a self-proclaimed
“people’s mayor” of Sloviansk.
Several pro-Russian separatist leaders have previously said that
they will not back down until there is a referendum on the
secession of eastern regions of Ukraine.
Read more Reason coverage of Ukraine here.
from Hit & Run http://ift.tt/1jNnGj6
via IFTTT