Putin’s Russia has already annexed party of the Ukraine….
The Crimea …
Now the Russian military has thousands more of troop’s deployed on its border and EVERYBODY IS nervous …
The US has had military ‘advisiors’ in the Ukraine for a while and the Russians do NOT like that…
The Biden admin is trying to engage the Russians diplomatically…
But with Biden pentagon military leaders worried about Chinese military aggression against Taiwan?
Putin’s military seems to be testing the US President and NATO’s resolve …..
After Russia’s invasion and annexation of Crimea in 2014, NATO stationed multinational combat-ready battle groups in each of those four countries, led by the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Germany.
“We are receiving information all the time about the Russian build-up, perhaps an aggressive build-up in the direct neighborhood of the Ukrainian border,” Duda said.
In the interview with POLITICO, [ Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys ] Shmyhal said Ukraine agreed with the U.S. intelligence assessments of a sizable increase in the number of Russian forces on the border — not only along the border with the Donetsk region that is largely occupied by Russian-backed separatists, but also in Crimea and in Belarus — with the total now numbering nearly 100,000 soldiers.
Ukrainian officials have said thousands of Russian troops remained in Belarus following joint military exercises earlier this fall, and that Russia has created and deployed new military intelligence units along the Belarus-Ukraine border with the consent of Belarus’ authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko.
Some analysts believe Russian President Vladimir Putin might want to seize a larger portion of Ukrainian territory, in part to create a land bridge between Russia and Crimea.
But while U.S. officials have briefed NATO allies about the threat of a Russian invasion, Ukrainian officials, including Shmyhal, said they believe the Kremlin is most immediately focused on a wider effort at destabilization of EU and NATO countries.
They said that destabilization effort includes exploiting a rise in worldwide natural gas prices, and restricting supply, creating anxiety in some European countries about having sufficient fuel for winter, and among politicians worried about citizens angry at higher home heating bills.
The Russian government and the state-controlled gas company Gazprom are also eager for regulatory approval that would allow operation of the newly constructed Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, and some Western officials believe the Kremlin is trying to use high prices and supply worries as pressure to win swifter clearance.
Shmyhal said the Russian threats are also designed to thwart Ukraine’s efforts at closer economic and political integration with the EU, and its security partnerships with NATO….