Required Reading:
Eastern Europe Long Term Geo Political Dynamics
http://continuingcounterreformation.blogspot.com/2014/09/western-eastern-roman-empire-101.html
Plus various
Continuing Counter Reformation articles from late 2013 and into 2014 about this part of the world.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/ukraine-clashes-rage-third-day-sparking-eu-concern-151326291.html
excerpt-
Avdiivka
(Ukraine) (AFP) - Ukrainian forces and Russian-backed rebels were on
Tuesday locked in fighting for a third straight day at a flashpoint town
that left thousands shivering without power and sparked renewed EU
concern about security in its backyard.
The
industrial hub of Avdiivka came under an unexpected assault Sunday from
insurgents seeking to wrest back territory controlled by Kiev during
the nearly three-year war.
The
clashes have claimed the lives of at least 13 civilians and fighters on
both sides since Sunday -- the worst outburst of violence since the two
sides agreed a new truce on December 23.
Ukrainian
President Petro Poroshenko underscored the urgency of the situation by
cutting short a visit to Berlin on Monday and convened an emergency
meeting of his National Security and Defence Council.
Poroshenko
is worried that Donald Trump's rise to the US presidency and praise for
Russia's Vladimir Putin may add fuel to a conflict that began shortly
after Ukraine's 2014 ouster of its Moscow-backed leader and tilt toward
the West.
Putin's
spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters the Kremlin was "extremely
worried" but had "reliable information" that renegade units of pro-Kiev
fighters were in fact responsible for the initial attacks. ...
http://www.businessinsider.com/moscow-will-get-the-message-us-flexes-muscles-with-largest-ever-deployment-to-poland-2017-1
excerpt-
In January, a US Army brigade of nearly 3,500 troops
and 2,700 pieces of heavy equipment arrived in Poland in the
largest deployments of US troops and armor to that country
The brigade came with a simple mission — integrate with the
Polish army and deter Russia on all fronts
"Russian aggression takes many forms," Gen. Ben Hodges, commander
of the US Army in Europe, told NBC News.
"Cyber, misinformation, threatening other countries, Russian snap
exercises. We're serious — this is not just a training exercise.
It's to demonstrate a strategic message that you cannot violate
the sovereignty of members of NATO ... Moscow will get the
message — I'm confident of it. "
The combine US and Polish forces immediately started training
with tanks, artillery, and helicopters in an overt show of force.
Meanwhile, US soldiers in Lithuania had just finished a similar
exercise. Estonia, Latvia, Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary
will all also see US troops deployed on a rotational basis.
But the US assurance to vulnerable NATO states in the Baltics
comes after a years-long Russian military buildup. Current and
former US generals have expressed doubts about NATO's ability to
deter or stop an outright attack from Russia, and a report from the think tank RAND Corp predicts
that Russia could seize control of the Baltic States within 36
hours of a blitz-like invasion.
...
... For now, US forces will train, eat, and sleep alongside their
European allies, meaning that a Russian attack of any sort on the
Baltics will draw an immediate reaction from the US.
http://www.newsweek.com/after-putin-call-merkel-set-meet-ukraines-poroshenko-549978
German Chancellor Angela Merkel will meet Ukrainian President Petro
Poroshenko Monday after U.S. President Donald Trump’s frenetic day of
phone calls that included herself and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Merkel, whose country brokered the maligned ceasefire between Moscow and Kiev in eastern Ukraine, known as the Minsk agreement, is fast becoming the Western leader most supportive of Ukraine’s struggle to integrate into Europe.
Since
the start of the conflict in 2014, governments previously hawkish
toward Russia, notably the U.S. under Barack Obama, have been replaced
by leaders such as Trump implementing a softer stance. The
approach within Europe itself is also threatening to
splinter after rising French electoral candidate Francois Fillon
described sanctions against the Kremlin as "pointless," Reuters reported.
Ukraine’s Poroshenko will visit Berlin to meet with Merkel as well as
the President of the Bundestag Norbert Lammert and Vice Chancellor
Sigmar Gabriel, according to Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin.
Speaking to one of Ukraine’s major Russian-language broadcaster’s Inter, Klimkin said that during the visit Monday, the two leaders would discuss a broad agenda of issues.
"We
had an agreement in early February to discuss a number of important
issues particularly how to make Russia fulfill Minsk agreements, the
security situation in Donbas, what can we do to free captives and how we
can take make use of the Normandy format most effectively today," he
said referring to the German-French brokered ceasefire.
Klimkin added that Ukraine and Germany were not only “political partners
but friends” and that Kiev would seek German help in implementing
anti-corruption reforms.
The Ukrainian minister also dismissed the possibility that Western
sanctions on Russia would be dropped without implementation of the
ceasefire, despite the Trump administration’s repeated suggestions that
the U.S. may lift its sanctions to secure a Russian concession on another issue.
“We
are going around in circles again on this issue,” Klimkin said, telling
his interviewer the Ukrainian vision was simple. “First we discuss how
we define the steps of the implementation of the Minsk (ceasefire)
agreements. Then we get guarantees from Russia's fulfillment of the
Minsk agreements.”
So far the ceasefire deal, agreed in Minsk,
Belarus, has been hard to implement due to a fundamental disagreement
about the nature of the Russian-backed forces in eastern Ukraine. Kiev
treats them as de facto Russian troops, having captured soldiers not
only equipped with Russian military issue weaponry, but also found to
be either active or past servicemen.
However, Russia has continued
to argue that the militant forces near the Russian border that have
kept Ukraine’s vast armed forces at bay for almost three years are local
independence fighters, who receive no military support from Moscow.
