Today the Pentagon announced that U.S. troops
will be in Ukraine next week training with NATO allies.
From the
Associated Press:
200 U.S. soldiers will participate in an exercise in western
Ukraine starting next week. It would be the first presence of
American ground troops in Ukraine since the crisis with
Russian-backed separatists began.The annual exercise, called Rapid Trident, involves forces from
15 nations and will not involve live firing of weapons. A Pentagon
spokesman, Col. Steve Warren, said it will be a peacekeeping
exercise with training through Sept. 26 in convoy operations,
patrolling and methods of countering improvised explosive devices,
or IEDs. …The Pentagon also announced it has delivered more
non-lethal aid to the Ukrainian military, including helmets,
explosive ordnance disposal robots, sleeping mats, jackets, radios,
body armor and first-aid kits.
Whether this sort of aid is ultimately helpful is questionable.
“In a pure armed conflict, Russia will beat Ukraine 100 times out
of 100,” explains
Russian policy expert Mark Adomanis. “The only way Ukraine can win
is if it isn’t purely military.”
Speaking from Estonia, President Barack Obama today
called upon NATO, which is hosting a summit in Wales tomorrow,
to make “concrete commitments” to protect Ukraine against Russia’s
“brazen assault.”
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said that Putin today
agreed to a cease-fire, but a Kremlin aide was quick to
amend that “Russia cannot agree on a cease-fire as it is not a
participant in the conflict.” Either way, Ukraine’s prime minister
calls Putin’s plan “deceptive,” as it involves Ukraine withdrawing
troops of its war-torn eastern regions.
Although Russia maintains that it is not responsible for the
war, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe,
which has an Observer Mission (OM)
on the front
observed a clear reversal in the flow of people crossing the
border (more people exiting the Russian Federation into Ukraine).
The OM observed an increased military activity principally of
unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in the vicinity of the Border
Crossing Points. The OM heard considerable artillery detonations
from the Donetsk Border Crossing Point.
And, hundreds of mothers of Russian soldiers are demanding
to know what has happened to their sons. Russian media yesterday
reported that Russia’s
entire 76th Pskov Airborne Division was killed in Ukraine.
France has cancelled
its sale of two warships to Russia, citing its aggression against
Ukraine.
And, in related news, the de facto leader of Crimea installed by
Russia since it invaded and annexed the peninsula from Ukraine has
said some truly worrisome things about homosexuals: “We
in Crimea do not need such people.”
from Hit & Run http://ift.tt/1rq7rij
via IFTTT