Vladimir Putin has assembled “hundreds of Russian T-64 and T-62M tanks and thousands of military vehicles” only 18 kilometers from the Russian-Ukrainian border in the environs of Kamensk-Shakhtinsk of Rostov Oblast. All this can be seen on Google Earth photographs, Igor Eidman says on Facebook a few hours ago.
“At any moment,” the Russian sociologist and commentator for Deutsche Welle says, this force can “move into Ukraine.” But as this is happening, the West is continuing to deal with Moscow as if nothing out of the ordinary were occurring, talking about Nord Stream 2, American sanctions, and recent contacts between Trump and Putin at the G20 meeting.
This is an old, old story as Winston Churchill might have put it and in fact did. The same pattern occurred “before the beginning of Nazi military expansion in Europe. Everyone saw what was happening but gave the impression that nothing extraordinary was happening. They feared to look truth in the face.”
Tragically, it appears, exactly the same thing is happening again, Eidman suggests.
Further Reading:
- Putin has crossed a Rubicon – Will the West respond?
- ‘In Russia today, I see a country preparing for a major war,’ Pastukhov says
- Russian aggression in the Azov Sea has been ongoing since May 2018
- Moscow may be preparing a ‘Syrian type’ chemical weapons ‘provocation’ in Ukraine, Ikhlov says
- Sailors captured by Russia are POWs, Russia violates Geneva Convention, say Ukrainian officials, lawyers
- Ukraine-related narratives dominate Russian propaganda – disinformation watchdogs
- Putin’s approach to Ukraine threatens entire international order and must be reversed, Skobov says
