US believes Russia could invade Ukraine ‘as soon as early 2022’
ft.com
ft.com
Russia needs Ukraine. China needs Taiwan. Both locations are perfect "control areas of the battlespace". Any military commander would recommend an attack.
The real issue would be direct force-on-force confrontations between Russia/US and/or China/US. So far the superpowers have avoided this and worked through proxy fights. Even in Syria the US was VERY careful to avoid Russian troops.
However, in Taiwan, there are US service personnel. I don't know but I suspect there are also US "advisors" in the Ukraine. Direct superpower attacks won't end well.
The situation will get wildly out of control VERY quickly.
First we surround you and take any opportunity to exploit your grievances with your neighbor countries and get them in our fold against you(while we're a country half the way around the world, which should have no business in the area), and then we accuse you...
As opposed to: "The US had continued to streghten the knot around Russia ever since the 90s, getting into bed with nearby countries to suffocate it, in areas which the US has no national disputes and no business of being there. In one those endeavours, after sponsoring and supporting several 'orange revolution' attempts, it helped topple the legitimate, elected government of Ukraine, and establish a new government with literal -not metaphorical, actual- neo-nazis in power. Russia, then, went in an area of Ukraine that has long historical roots to Russia, and a majority of population of Russian ethnicity, and annexed it".
The US has toppled governments, bombed countries, and supported dictatorships all around the globe for much less -- even for just considering to nationalize oil or make changes affecting its business interests there (aka "banana republics").
And this, to contrast, is in Russia's border, with a Russian ethnic population, and an unfavorable government, in an area which used to be part of Russia proper back (way before USSR).
Kind of like if Baja California had 65% americans, and the USSR had helped topple mexico's government with a pro-USSR coalition featuring neo-nazis, all the while orchestrating nearby countries (Canada, Panama, whatever), to be part of the Warsaw Pact.
So, the US allows 100% (of aggression, invasions, etc.) to itself all around the globe, and then cries if Russia does 10% of that in its own borders and/or where there's Russian population.
And then US citizens, always "informed", go on about Russia being worse, or at least equivalent, and anybody pointing otherwise is doing 'whataboutism'.
Typical Russian lie. After the Yanukovich fled, there was a provisional government made up from people who were ALREADY in the Ukrainian parliament, which would serve only as an interim power until the elections, that were planned just in two months. Yet people of Donbass and Crimea never got to participate in said elections, due to annexation of Crimea and seizure of power in Donbass region. All of that led to war, millions of broken lives, thousands of deaths, just because of some fabricated TV fantasy. Because there is "Russian" population. You are defending military adventurism which reduced Donetsk, the city of major importance in Ukraine, to some lawless pseudo-soviet parody.
And again, US does not have business of being in Ukraine, neither does Russia. Do you really think that this stuff in Donbass really helped anyone? Where do you think it is better to live, in Russian-speaking Ukrainian Kharkov or in 'independent' Donetsk.
Putin is criminal and he is no friend of the West. His aircraft loiter around Alaska and he tests US defenses every hour. Don't be an apologist for a tyrant.
More like, restore the buffer zone with defensible geographic barriers that the Soviet Union had.
Russia’s geography is terrible for defense it being positioned in the “horde lands” which allow attacking armies to drive right through. Current Russian borders require huge armies to defend in a nation that is running out of suitable army personnel due to a terminally low birth rate for decades, widespread heroin addiction, disease etc.
This move by Russia has long been expected, and it won’t stop at the Ukraine.
will stop at nato borders or 99% of us will die.
We’ll see whether NATO is worth the paperwork. The US is in a bipartisan starkly anti-interventionist mood of late and may not want to come to Europe’s aid which should defend itself.