Russia-Ukraine war into its 23rd day

When Russia invaded Ukraine, it had presumed that it would be a cakewalk to conquer it. However, resistance offered by the people of Ukraine has forced the invader to rethink its strategies. Vladimir Putin, President of Russia, had justified his action by saying that modern, Western-leaning Ukraine was a constant threat and Russia could not feel "safe, develop and exist." This is reported by The BBC. Ukraine became independent in 1991 after the collapse of the Soviet Union. It has gradually tried to align with the West - both the EU and NATO. The war has gone on for 23 days with destruction of properties, loss of lives and displacement of millions of innocents. Those who once had homes became homeless and are now refugees.

Putin described the war as a "special military operation." Russia initially had plans to overrun Ukraine and depose its government. The intention was to ensure that it did not join the Western defensive alliance NATO. The Russian President had said there was no plan to occupy Ukraine but subsequent events revealed a different picture. The BBC says the bombardment continues. Peace talks tend to suggest Russia is no longer seeking to overthrow the government but will try for a neutral Ukraine.

President Putin wants to set up airbase in Belarus but Belarus does not approve

Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to establish a Russian military air base in neighboring Belarus. But, while Belarus does not approve of a Russian base, it is helpless because the former Soviet republic continues to remains dependent on Moscow for credit and energy. And, the Russian move would unnerve Poland and the Baltic nations.
This has been reported in dailymail.co.uk dated 20 September 2015.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has not commented on Putin's initiative but, the two presidents had met in the southern Russian city of Sochi and President Putin has ordered his Defense Ministry to hold talks with their Belarusian counterparts and sign the agreement.
Russia has radar and a navy communications facility in Belarus, but this would be the first airbase. Belarus has its advantages and is a desirable location for Russia because it borders Ukraine and three members of the European Union and NATO: Lithuania, Latvia and Poland.
Moreover setting up such a base is not new. The idea of setting up an airbase in the ex-Soviet republic had been revealed by Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu in 2013. It follows a 2009 agreement under which Russia and Belarus had agreed to defend their common external frontier and airspace.
The proposed base would be used to station Su-27 fighters.
(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)

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US to position military equipment in East Europe to deter Russian invasion

The situation in Eastern Europe is volatile and the US has plans to position military equipment like battle tanks, infantry fighting vehicles and other heavy weapons to cater to approximately 5,000 troops in a number of Baltic and Eastern European countries. The intention is to counter any designs of a Russian aggression in Europe.
This has been reported in dailymail.co.uk dated 14 June 2015.

The United States wants to reassure its European allies in the wake of Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimea in March 2014. The proposal is likely to be approved by U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter and the White House. A meeting of NATO defense ministers would be held in Brussels this month and the approval could be accorded before that.
Once approved, the proposal would mark the first time since the Cold War that Washington would be positioning heavy military equipment in the newer NATO member states in Eastern Europe. These states used to, once, be under Soviet influence.
Under the proposal, 'a company's worth of equipment - enough for about 150 soldiers - would be kept in each of the three Baltic nations: Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. Moreover, equipment for a company or possibly a battalion - about 750 soldiers - would be located in countries like Poland, Romania, Bulgaria and possibly Hungary.
(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)

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Latvian cargo plane enters British airspace – RAF Typhoons gives chase

A Russian-built cargo plane of Latvia violated British airspace and, as a result, RAF Typhoon jets were scrambled from RAF Coningsby to intercept the Antonov An-26 airliner news.sky.com. The Typhoons threatened to shoot down the plane.

It seems the plane had lost communication with air traffic controllers as it headed towards London. The RAF planes escorted the Russian-built plane to Stansted airport, where it landed at around 5.20pm.
A search of the RAF-Avia plane by the police revealed that the plane was carrying car parts from Reims, France, to Birmingham.
The alarm was raised because the plane that was travelling over the Channel towards Kent did not respond to communications with air traffic control as it entered British airspace.

Incidentally, this incident came even as NATO had reported about "unusual level of air activity" in European airspace. In fact, it had tracked four groups of Russian military aircraft that were carrying out significant military maneuvers over the past two days. The aircraft were strategic bombers, fighters and tanker aircraft and the exercises were over the Baltic Sea, North Sea, Atlantic Ocean and the Black Sea.

Obama came in 2008 riding the wave of anti-war sentiment but wars continue in both Iraq and Afghanistan

The way things are shaping up in Iraq and Afghanistan, it is evident that while Barack Obama, elected president in 2008 on a wave of anti-war sentiment, would be passing off both the Afghanistan war and his new war in Iraq and Syria to his successor theguardian.com.
It may be recalled that in 2010, his vice-president, Joe Biden, had publicly vowed that the US would be “totally out” of Afghanistan “by 2014 but the primary explicit purpose of the latest deal between the US and Afghanistan, known as the Bilateral Security Agreement, would permit the US to continue training Afghanistan’s roughly 350,000 security forces, which the US and NATO have built from scratch.
Under the proposed agreement, the US military would enjoy access to nine major land and airbases, including the massive airfields at Bagram, Jalalabad and Kandahar, staging areas not only for air operations in Afghanistan but the US drone strikes that continue across the border in tribal Pakistan. The additional bases in Kabul, Mazar-i-Sharif, Herat, Helmand, Gardez and Shindand would ensure the reach of the US military throughout the whole of Afghanistan.
Moreover, with the rise of the Islamic State (ISIS) after the 2011 US withdrawal from Iraq, the US finds itself in a peculiar situation of rewriting history by returning to Iraq to tackle the menace of the IS while the 13 years of bloody, expensive war in Afghanistan have failed to vanquish the insurgency of the Taliban.

NATO pushing Russia to the brink with new sanctions

Despite mounting pressure on Russia to bring normalcy to the disturbed regions in east Ukraine, and the adamant attitude of Russia, NATO is formulating tough new measures that would be designed to halt Russian aggression in Ukraine news.sky.com. These would be unveiled on the second and final day of a NATO summit in Wales.
It is expected that both the United States and European Union would join hands and come together to announce a new round of coordinated economic sanctions against Russia. This has been reported by US and British government sources.
The proposed sanctions would include restrictions on some of the country's all important energy firms apart from travel restrictions.
Speaking on the sidelines of the NATO summit, the Deputy White House national security adviser Ben Rhodes has indicated that the key point is that Russia must continue to face costs for its own escalation. Or, in short, if Russia escalates, the others would also escalate their pressure.
The conflict in Ukraine is set to top the agenda for the second day of the NATO summit, with western leaders accusing Russia of sending thousands of troops into the east of the country.
NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has cautioned that Russia's incursion into Ukraine poses the most serious security threat to Europe since the Cold War – of course, Moscow has consistently denied about any direct military involvement in Ukraine.
British Prime Minister David Cameron, US President Barack Obama and other senior NATO leaders have already met Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko who has announced plans to order a ceasefire. His condition is that a peace plan should be agreed upon during separate talks in Minsk which would be attended by representatives from Ukraine, Russia and pro-Russian rebel forces.,br> Incidentally, Russian President Vladimir Putin has also expressed hopes that a truce will come into force later, two days after he unveiled his own seven-point peace plan.
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Setback for Ukraine as pro-Russia separatists take over coastal town of Novoazovsk

Ukraine suffered another setback as the pro-Russia separatists take over control of the strategic coastal town of Novoazovsk, a day after Ukraine claimed tanks and armored vehicles had invaded from Russia foxnews.com. Reports indicate that at least a half-dozen tanks have been seen in the town of about 12,000 people – the tanks bear the flags of Novorossiya, the would-be state proclaimed by rebels in two eastern Ukraine regions.
While none of the tanks bore any Russian markings, it seems the ready-made meals seen near one of the tanks carried markings which reveal that they were issued by the Russian army.
As clarified by a rebel commander, there is no Russian equipment arriving and they are making use of whatever machinery the Ukrainian forces have abandoned.
Of course, such claims of using only confiscated Ukrainian equipment are quite common but the top rebel leader Alexander Zakharchenko has himself admitted that Russia was supplying equipment and fighters. Russia continues to reject all such insinuations and that has been hotly dismissed by the West.
NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has indicated that in spite of Moscow's hollow denials, Russian troops and equipment have illegally crossed the border. This is a blatant violation of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity and defies all diplomatic efforts for a peaceful solution.
NATO has revealed that there are at least 1,000 Russian troops in Ukraine and has also made public satellite photos of Russian self-propelled artillery units moving in Ukraine.
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Poroshenko cancels visit to Turkey because of Russian troop deployments in Ukraine

Ukraine's president Petro Poroshenko has cancelled a visit to Turkey because of "Russian troop deployments" in the country's east. Reports indicate that in the latest offensive, pro-Russian rebels have opened a new front in the south by seizing the coastal town of Novoazovsk bbc.com. NATO says that it has detected a significant increase of Russian arms being supplied to the rebels over the past two weeks whereas Russia has been continuously denying that its forces have crossed Ukraine's border.
As a result, the United Nations Security Council is planning to hold an emergency meeting in New York on Thursday at 18:00 GMT to discuss the crisis.
NATO Brigadier General Niko Tak has admitted that there had been a "significant escalation in the level and sophistication of Russia's military interference in Ukraine" over the past two weeks.
It seems NATO has detected large quantities of advanced weapons, including air defense systems, artillery, tanks, and armored personnel carriers that have been transferred to separatist forces in eastern Ukraine. Obviously, Russia is reinforcing and resupplying separatist forces in a blatant attempt to change the momentum of the fighting, which is currently favoring the Ukrainian military.
More than 1,000 Russian troops are reportedly operating inside Ukraine, both supporting the separatists and fighting on their side and, so far, at least 2,119 people have been killed in the four months of fighting.
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