Ukraine Under Duress of Invasion Threats

In the first week of April, Russia had begun to build up its military presence at the border with Ukraine. This was a reaction to Ukraine's "provocations" — which were aimed at escalating the conflict between Russian separatists and Ukrainian government troops, the Kremlin said. According to observers sent by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), there was no provocation.

"The president's office, of course, made a request to speak with Vladimir Putin."

"We have not received an answer yet and we very much hope that this not a refusal of dialogue."

Julia Mendel, spokesperson, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky

"Questions are being asked about what Russia is doing on the border with Ukraine."

"The answer is very simple. We live there, it's our country."

"But what is the United States doing thousands of kilometres from its own territory with its warships and troops in Ukraine?"

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov

"The United States is our adversary and does everything it can to undermine Russia's position on the world stage."

Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov

 

Sergei Lavrov was on a visit to Egypt when he expressed his sentiments respecting Russia's ownership of Ukraine. The Middle East is not exactly next door geographically to Russia. And nor is Syria a neighbour of Russia. But Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin feel perfectly at ease with a deep sea port off the Syrian coast and an airport for their warplanes in Syria. The warplanes are on a mission to secure the entire geographic region to return it from the hands of Sunni Syrian militias striving to unseat Syria's Shiite Alawite President Bashar al Assad. 

In aid to President Assad's regime, Russian warplanes bomb hospitals and medical clinics in rebel-held territory, exacting a terrible price in human lives held to be 'terrorists' and 'scum' by Assad and supported in that designation by Putin. Moscow, of course, is prepared to bomb and terrorize not only foreign populations fighting for equality in their country of birth, but Ukrainian citizens loyal to Ukraine as an independent sovereign nation. The historical bondage and occupation of Ukraine is a matter that time righted.

President Putin seems himself as a Russian icon of 'unification', eventually restoring what Greater Russia lost with the dissolution of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, with a mission to bring Russia back to its past days of glory and subordination of its neighbours to Russian control. Georgia was treated to its own very special humiliation with the loss of two of its provinces thanks to Russia, and Estonia was treated to an example of the mischief Moscow could guarantee through cyberattacks.

Now, ethnic-Russian 'Ukrainians' whose aspirations are to return Ukraine to Russian domination have their plans supported by Russian arms and intervention in the Donbass region, where Moscow saw fit to 'extract' the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine, claiming it as Russia's original territory, giving Russia a firm grasp of Eastern Ukraine. Russia's military buildup on the border between Russia and Ukraine is a strictly defensive move, its purpose to 'defend' the rebellious ethnic Russian-speaking Ukrainians against Ukrainian oppression.

 

A tank fires during control checks of Russia's armed forces. On both sides of the Russian-Ukrainian border, troops are testing the combat readiness of their weapon systems. This thumbnail was taken from a video released by the Russian Defense Ministry.

Kyiv, in accusing the Kremlin of planning another invasion to violently restore Ukraine to the bearish embrace of Russia, also appealed to NATO to permit it the formality of membership, which would automatically trigger NATO defensive involvement should an invasion take place. NATO's involvement to the present has already been to great effect, establishing member-battalions in key near-abroad states as a warning to Russia that it is committed to the defence of Ukraine.

The recent movement of Russian troops and materiel to the eastern border of Ukraine has raised alarm not only in Ukraine but throughout the West, with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg discussing "the immediate need for Russia to cease its aggressive military buildup". Which Russia translates as an intolerable interference in its internal affairs by the Western alliance threatening Russia's historical alliances and the movable feast of its geography.

Russia's response is to point out its inalienable right as a free and sovereign nation to move its forces about for strictly 'defensive' purposes; the right of any country. And while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as a nation whose sovereignty is disputed by Russia, strives to react calmly and rationally, inviting his Russian counterpart to dialogue and a reasonable effort to work through the 'misunderstanding' Russia labours under, his request is ignored.

 

President Zelensky (front L) visited Ukrainian troops in the conflict zone on 8-9 April   EPA

 

Much as is U.S. President Biden's request for a one-on-one meeting between himself and Vladimir Putin whose response to that invitation was the evasive rejoinder that Mr. Putin would give the suggestion consideration before responding in the affirmative, if such be the case. Russia, according to Mr. Zelensky's spokesperson, has 40,000 troops deployed on the eastern border of Ukraine, with an additional 40,000 troops in Crimea; 50,000 of the total representing new deployments.

Two U.S. warships are scheduled for arrival in the Black Sea this week, responding to what U.S. and NATO officials characterize as the largest massing of Russian forces -- thousands of combat-ready troops -- since Moscow saw fit to relieve Ukraine of Crimea. In President Biden's offer to meet with President Putin, the goal was to secure "a stable and predictable relationship" with Russia, the meeting conceivably addressing "the full range of issues" the two world powers face.

The Kremlin revealed the result of the call between Mr. Biden and Mr. Putin was the American President explaining his wish to normalize relations for co-operation on arms control, Iran's nuclear program, Afghanistan and climate change. From the time decades ago when George W.Bush met with the then-new President of Russia, declaring Vladimir Putin to be a man he could do business with, to the present, where a new cold war has been reestablished, the situation has evolved to Moscow pushing back against unacceptable U.S. interference in its geographical sphere of influence.

Russian units have been on exercises in Crimea    Getty Images