NATO

Vice-Admiral Kay-Achim Schönbach, the head of the German navy, has resigned after saying talk of a Russian invasion of Ukraine was “nonsense” and that Russia was merely seeking “respect” for its security concerns in Europe. “It is easy to give him the respect he really demands – and probably also deserves,” Schönbach told a meeting of a think tank in New Delhi on Friday. “My minister asked me what does Russia really want?” the vice-admiral said. “Is Russia really interested in having a small, tiny strip of Ukrainian soil to integrate into their country? No. This is nonsense. I think Putin is putting pressure on it because he knows he can do it. And he splits the European Union. But what he really wants is respect. He wants on a high-level, respect. And my God, giving someone respect is low cost, even no cost. So if I were asked, it is easy to give him the respect he really demands – and probably also deserves. Russia is an old country. Russia is an important country.” Schönbach also acknowledged that “the Crimean peninsula is gone. It will never come back. This is a fact.”

An American friend of mine, now living in Russia, has two sons in the US Army. One of them said to him today, "your two sons are going to be fighting your beloved Russia." So the troops are obviously being told to prepare for war. One of those sons, an Army Special Forces soldier has been sent to western Ukraine several times to train the Nazi death squads that have been brought into the Ukrainian  Army since the US orchestrated coup d'état in 2014. Russia has repeatedly stated that they have no intention of invading Ukraine - unless Ukraine first strikes Crimea or the Donbass (eastern Ukraine that borders Russia where two Russian-ethnic republics are located that have continually been targets of the right-wing Kiev government since 2014).

Continuing the hysteria surrounding Ukraine, the White House warned on Tuesday that Russia could invade the country “at any point.” “Our view is this is an extremely dangerous situation. We’re now at a stage where Russia could at any point launch an attack in Ukraine,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters. Also on Tuesday, the State Department claimed that Russia could use military drills in Belarus as cover to attack Ukraine from the north. Russia said Tuesday that it has begun deploying troops to Belarus for joint exercises that will be held in February. “The reports of Russian troop movements towards Belarus, which these movements are supposedly under the auspices of regularly scheduled joint military exercises, are concerning,” a State Department official told reporters.

On Monday, Russia’s Foreign Affairs Minister Sergey Lavrov denounced that the West might provoke a war in Ukraine to blame Russia and impose economic sanctions on it. "I do not rule out that there is such a desire to fuel militaristic sentiments [in Ukraine] to stage a ‘small war' and then accuse us and impose new sanctions to suppress our competitive advantages," Lavrov said. The Foreign Minister, who has repeatedly reiterated that the concentration of Russian troops in the vicinity of Ukraine is not for aggressive purposes, denounced that the West has sent over US$2.5 billion in weapons to Ukraine since 2014. He also mentioned that voices within the European Union propose to implement preventive sanctions and then lift them if the Russian invasion of Ukraine does not happen in early 2022.

Russia says Europe must think about the real prospect of turning their continent into a field of military confrontation like that which existed at the height of the Cold War, writes Scott Ritter. The United States, wrapped in its self-made cloak of so-called “American exceptionalism”, is loath to undertake any action that can be construed as weakening its geopolitical posture or strengthening that of an adversary, actual or potential.