Based on the shape of those tanks, it doesn’t appear so.
Anti-Kiev rebels seized control of a checkpoint south of Marinovka, near the border with Russia, following a ferocious battle with Kiev forces in recent days. The anti-Kiev forces deployed a sniper and anti-tank team, among other units, to take the checkpoint. The bodies of two Ukrainian soldiers were identified, as well as four tanks and one APC destroyed.
It appears the Ukrainians are having some trouble.
US Sending 600 Troops, APCs And Tanks To Countries Bordering Russia To “Reassure Threatened Allies”
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 08/14/2014 15:30 -0400
Escalation over the Ukraine conflict, a/k/a Cold War 2.0, just took another major step forward.
While the world is focused on the first deployment of US marines in Iraq in nearly a decade, as “humanitarian advisors” of course so as not to destroy the Nobel peace prize-winning aura of the US president who is rapidly becoming a warmonger on par with his predecessor, a far more dangerous development took place overnight with nobody noticing, when the Pentagon announced that approximately 600 soldiers from the Army’s 1st Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division will deploy to Poland and the Baltic states to help reassure European allies who feel threatened by Russian military moves. And while most Americans may be geographically challenged, Russians know very well that all of these countries border on Russia. As such this very demonstrative military expansion by NATO powers to “pre-contain” Russian military agression will only lead to one thing: even more “defensive” escalation.
Some more detail on the latest US dispatch of troops in the area now defined by the second coming of the Cold War from Stripes.com:
The troops and their equipment — which include M-1 Abrams tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, and armored personnel carriers — will go to Europe in October for a three-month series of training exercises.
The troops will originate out of Fort Hood, Texas (keep this in mind for a post later today) and will replace 600 paratroopers from the Army’s 173rd Airborne Brigade. “These land training exercises … help foster interoperability through small unit and leader training,” Pentagon spokesman Col. Steve Warren said.
In addition to ground forces, the U.S. has also sent F-16 combat aircraft to Poland and participated in NATO air policing missions over the Baltics.
So why is the US sending military reinforcements at a time when every troop movement is scrutinized with a microscope around the globe:
The exercises came at the request of host nations that fear a resurgent Russia, which annexed the Crimea region of Ukraine earlier this year and continues to support a pro-Russia separatist movement in eastern Ukraine.
So to summarize: the countries that are most worried about Russian military aggression, those which by definition border on Russia, have decided to preempt Russia and demand additional US military presence on their territory, believing that the Kremlin will not see this US military build up as one which threatens Russia with even further NATO expansion on its borders. .
Brilliant. Why? Because recall what happened in December 2013 long before the Ukraine semi-hot proxy civil war was raging:
It seems [Putin] had a Plan B in case things escalated out of control, one that fits with what we wrote a few days ago when we reported that “Russia casually announces it will use nukes if attacked.” Namely, as Bloomberg reports citing Bild, Russia quietly stationed a double-digit number of SS-26 Stone, aka Iskander, tactical, nuclear-capable short-range missiles near the Polish border in a dramatic escalation to merely verbal threats issued as recently as a year ago.
This comes from an article titled “Russia Stations Tactical, Nuclear-Capable Missiles Along Polish Border”, in which we explained how Russia has done precisely this when it stationed a “double-digit” of SS-26 nuclear missiles in Kaliningrad on the border with Poland, over “concerns” what NATO encorachment close to its territory could imply.
And now, NATO appears to have decided to find out just what Russia’s response to such an incremental tactical arms build up will be.
Putin Punks West (Again): Russian Troops Enter Ukraine, Guardian Reports
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 08/14/2014 17:39 -0400
As Russia’s 300-strong ‘humanitarian’ convoy of white trucks slithered towards the Ukraine border, it appears, according to The Guardian, that, in spite of the market’s exuberance at this morning’s comments of “avoiding conflict,” Vladimir Putin sent a real ‘green’ military Russian convoy across the Ukraine border late Thursday evening.
As The Guardian reports,
While the white trucks came to a halt well short of Ukraine’s border, a different Russian convoy did cross into Ukrainian territory late on Thursday evening.
The Guardian saw a column of 23 armoured personnel carriers, supported by fuel trucks and other logistics vehicles with official Russian military plates, travelling towards the border near the Russian town of Donetsk.
After pausing by the side of the road until nightfall, the convoy crossed into Ukrainian territory, using a rough dirt track and clearly crossing through a gap in a barbed wire fence that demarcates the border. Armed men were visible in the gloom by the border fence as the column moved into Ukraine.
Kiev has lost control of its side of the border in this area.
The trucks are unlikely to represent a full-scale official Russian invasion, and it was unclear how far they planned to travel inside Ukrainian territory and how long they would stay. But it was incontrovertible evidence of what Ukraine has long claimed – that Russian troops are active inside its borders.
…
The armoured column seen by the Guardian appeared to be further evidence of Russia’s incursions, which the Kremlin has repeatedly denied.
Read more here…
As The Telegraph confirms,
A column of armoured vehicles and military trucks crossed the border from Russia into Ukraine on Thursday night, in the first confirmed sighting of such an incident by Western journalists.
The Telegraph witnessed a column of vehicles including both armoured personal carriers and soft-skinned lorries crossing into Ukraine at an obscure border crossing near the Russian town of Donetsk shortly before 10pm local time.
read more here…
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We assume this means Stocks will give back all their gains? lol…
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Of course, we suspect if one were to ask Putin, this is merely an entry into an independent sovereign republic… not Ukraine per se… although we are sure he knows full well how the West will interpret this action.
A broke country with troops spread thin, about to enter an inflationary collapse, hated by damn near everyone, exporting their inflation while using up the world’s resources to produce ____, well nothing, & with a jobless rate around 30%…
What smarter move than to start a war with a country that doesn’t have those problems, has nukes, & then militarize your own police force making the government look like the enemy @ home?
What could go wrong?
Admin, since the Ruskies say the “Green column” incident never happened, I’d like to see the “incontrovertible evidence” cited by the Guardian and Telegraph. Do these news organization have feet on the ground, or are they reciting Ukie press releases?