Ukraine urges calm, saying Russian invasion not imminent

‘No reason to panic,’ Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said late Monday

Ukraine’s leaders sought to reassure the nation that a feared invasion from neighbouring Russia was not imminent, even as they acknowledged the threat is real and prepared to accept a shipment of American military equipment Tuesday to shore up the country’s defences.

Russia has denied it is planning an assault, but it has massed an estimated 100,000 troops near Ukraine in recent weeks, leading the United States and its NATO allies to rush to prepare for a possible war.

Several rounds of high stakes diplomacy have failed to yield any breakthroughs, and this week tensions escalated further. NATO said it was bolstering its deterrence in the Baltic Sea region, and the U.S. ordered 8,500 troops on higher alert to potentially deploy to Europe as part of an alliance “response force” if necessary

The Canadian government announced Tuesday it’s withdrawing the family members of diplomatic staff stationed in Ukraine amid heightened fears of a Russian invasion.

“The safety and security of Canadians, our personnel and their families at our missions abroad is our top priority,” said Global Affairs Canada in a statement.

The U.S. State Department has ordered the families of all American personnel at the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv to leave the country, and it said that nonessential embassy staff could leave. Britain said it, too, was withdrawing some diplomats and dependents from its embassy.

In Ukraine, however, authorities have sought to project calm — and many ordinary people have expressed skepticism that there will be an invasion soon.

Speaking in parliament on Tuesday, Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov said that “as of today, there are no grounds to believe” that Russia is preparing to invade imminently, noting that its troops have not formed what he called a battle group that could force its way through the border.

“Don’t worry, sleep well,” Reznikov said. “No need to have your bags packed.”

Reznikov’s remarks come on the heels of multiple reassurances from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and other officials. On Monday, Zelensky told the nation that the situation was “under control.”

In an interview aired late on Monday, however, the defence minister acknowledged that “there are risky scenarios” that “are possible and probable in the future.”

‘Fomenting tensions’

Russia has said Western accusations that it is planning an invasion are merely a cover for NATO’s own planned provocations. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov on Tuesday once again accused the U.S. of “fomenting tensions” around Ukraine, a former Soviet state that Russia has been locked in a bitter tug-of-war with for almost eight years.

In 2014, following the ouster of a Kremlin-friendly president in Ukraine, Moscow annexed the Crimean peninsula and threw its weight behind a separatist insurgency in the country’s industrial heartland in the east. The fighting between Ukrainian forces and Russia-backed rebels has since killed over 14,000 combatants and civilians, according to Ukrainian government estimates, and efforts to reach a peaceful settlement of the conflict have stalled.

In the latest standoff, Russia has demanded guarantees from the West that NATO would never allow Ukraine to join and that the alliance would curtail other actions, such as stationing troops in former Soviet bloc countries. Some of these, like any pledge to permanently bar Ukraine, are non-starters for NATO — creating a seemingly intractable stalemate that many fear can only end in war.

Moscow has also accused Ukraine of massing troops near the rebel-controlled regions in the east, with the alleged aim of retaking them by force — accusations Kyiv has rejected.

Analysts say the Ukrainian government is caught between trying to calm the nation and ensuring it gets sufficient assistance from the West in case an invasion does happen.

“Ukrainian authorities are trying to prevent destabilization and panic inside the country, hence the calming statements saying there is no threat of an imminent Russian invasion,” political analyst Volodymyr Fesenko said.

“The Kremlin’s plans include undermining the situation inside Ukraine, fomenting hysteria and fear among Ukrainians, and the authorities in Kyiv find it increasingly difficult to contain this snowball.”

Some Ukrainians are watching warily.

“Of course we fear Russia’s aggression and a war, which will lead to the further impoverishment of Ukrainians. But we will be forced to fight and defend ourselves,” said Dmytro Ugol, a 46-year-old construction worker in Kyiv. “I am prepared to fight, but my entire family doesn’t want it and lives in tension. Every day, the news scares us more and more.”

Heightened alert

Putting the U.S.-based troops on heightened alert for Europe on Monday suggested diminishing hope that Russian President Vladimir Putin will back away from what U.S. President Joe Biden himself has said looks like a threat to invade Ukraine.

As part of a new $200 million US in security assistance directed to Ukraine from the United States, a shipment including equipment and munitions is also expected to arrive Tuesday in Ukraine.

The U.S. moves are being done in tandem with actions by other NATO member governments to bolster a defensive presence in eastern Europe. Denmark, for example, is sending a frigate and F-16 warplanes to Lithuania; Spain is sending four fighter jets to Bulgaria and three ships to the Black Sea to join NATO naval forces; and France stands ready to send troops to Romania.  – national newswatch

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‘No reason to panic,’ Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said late Monday. 

Maybe the Ukrainian leader should talk to all of the NATO countries and the mainstream media.  They seem to have a different view of the present situation.  The US especially.  The US is always enthusiastic about wars that take place in any other country but their own. Does the world want another war?  Does Europe want another war?  I don’t think so.

What is all this Ukraine crisis all about anyway?  Is it about Russia wanting to close down the gas pipeline that currently supplies Europe? The one that runs through the Ukraine?

It can’t be about natural resources, which is the usual reason the US wants to start wars.  The Ukraine does not have any.   No oil. No gas.  No minerals to speak of.

Maybe its about the fact that the US is not fighting a war anywhere in the world right now and that is not good for the US defence industry.  The US needs to be in a state of constant war OR be supplying arms to countries that are fighting a war.  No money in peace.

Maybe its all about trying to distract the public from the fact that their lives no suck.  Empty store shelves, high fuel prices and inflation.  Pretty sure that the American people do not want to fight a war with anyone right now, let alone a nuclear power such as Russia.  Such a war could only end one way.  Who wants to go there?

George Orwell’s novel 1984, the 1948 ‘manual’ that governments are using to govern their populations today, shows the benefit of having a constant war and a demonized leader for the people and their rulers to blame for all problems.  Today, that demon leader is Putin.  Putin is the scapegoat for all of the wests problems.  Whatever is wrong, its Putin’s fault. Its the Russians.

Of course, Russia is a country with a large quantity of valuable natural resources.  Hmmmm….  US corporations would love to get their hands on that stuff.

Then there is the following article from Matt Taibbi:

Let’s Not Have a War – The American foreign policy establishment, chasing decades of failures, appears to be seriously considering the unthinkable in Ukraine

Worth a read if you are interested in some of the recent history of the US’s foreign policy in regards to the Ukraine.