Russian Army Spetsnaz Units Arrested Operating In Ukraine 623
An anonymous reader writes with this excerpt from The Examiner: "The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) confirmed March 16 the arrest of a group of Russians in the Zaporizhzhia (Zaporozhye) region of Ukraine. The men were armed with firearms, explosives and unspecified 'special technical means'. This follows the March 14 arrest ... of several Russians dressed black uniforms with no insignia, armed with AKS-74 assault rifles and in possession of numerous ID cards under various names. One of which was an ID card of Military Intelligence Directorate of the Russian armed forces; commonly known as 'Spetsnaz'. ... Spetsnaz commandos operating in eastern Ukraine would have the missions encompassing general ground reconnaissance of Ukrainian army units ... missions they may perform preparatory to a Russian invasion would be planting explosives at key communications choke points to hinder movement of Ukrainian forces; seizing control of roads, rail heads, bridges and ports for use by arriving Russian combat troops; and possibly capturing or assassinating Ukrainian generals or politicians in key positions ... Spetsnaz also infiltrate themselves into local populations ... Once in place they begin 'stirring the pot' of ethnic and political strife with the goal of creating violent clashes usually involving firearms and destabilizing local authority."
The submitter adds links to more at Forbes, The Daily Beast, and The New Republic.
Authoritarian Oligarchy vs. Democracy (Score:4, Interesting)
As a result of this struggle, Putin sees Ukrainian protests as a direct threat to his dictatorship, least Maidan escalate into 'Russian Spring'. As such, he is willing to risk sanctions, isolation from West, and a shooting war in order to destabilize Ukraine at all costs. That why Crimea annexation, that why Soviet-era propaganda trying to paint Ukrainian protesters as radicals/nazis, that why he is sending covert ops into the rest of Ukraine.
What is more interesting, is that Russian KGB learned a great deal how to use Internet to misdirect and confuse otherwise very clear issue. Reading the comments sections of all major new sources you can clearly see paid shills spewing Kremlin's talking points and/or trying to derail the conversation.
Re:We need a US base in the Ukraine (Score:5, Interesting)
The US has a treaty with Ukraine and Russia that Russia is violating, so we need to step up. It would likely be best to send a small to medium detachment and put them temporarily under the control of the Ukraine government. Also plenty of intelligence officers. We don't need to direct them ourselves and generate more strife than needed.
Re:Should You or any of Your IM Force be Caught .. (Score:5, Interesting)
If they're Spetsnaz, and they allowed themselves to be arrested, they clearly had orders to not kill anybody, especially cops.
Nunya (Score:4, Interesting)
Putin's neo-Stalinism aside, it may be sad to sit helplessly on the sidelines but the US has no territorial, economic, or security interest in Ukraine whatsoever. It's none of America's damn business.
Somewhere, sometime, the US has got to get over this notion of being the world's comic-book superhero.
Now is a good time to start. Picking a fight with a bully that has a huge nuclear arsenal is a bad idea.
Re:We need a US base in the Ukraine (Score:2, Interesting)
Tell you what, why don't you look it up and then come back and tell everyone exactly what obligations the US has under the agreement. (hint: the US is in full compliance under the most liberal interpretation of the agreement)
BTW, under US law a "treaty" has a very specific meaning so "splitting hairs" doesn't apply in this case.
Re:We need a US base in the Ukraine (Score:2, Interesting)
Why the fuck not? The rest of the world bitches about how we're not the world's policemen. Let fucking France or Germany or fucking Poland deal with this. We contained the Soviet Union for over 40 years and guaranteed they wouldn't come west. You lot go pull your fucking weight already.
disinformation (Score:5, Interesting)
I have relatives in Ukraine living in Odessa oblast, Novoukrainka, Kiev and in Lviv, and friends in Crimea. Those listening to Russian news, are saying that ultra-nationalists are shooting Russians in the street in Lviv. Panicked, we called our relatives, and found they are absolutely fine, and the streets are quiet. A percentage of the population believes whatever the Russian media tells them; a form of information bias. Unfortunately, Russian media has past Ukraine in a pretty negative light, and have now resorted to telling outright lies, in what looks like an attempt to soften up Russian sympathetic Ukrainians to invasion; dividing and conquering within with an information war..
Hitler once said -- if you're going to tell a lie, don't tell a little one, tell a big one. Ukraine is a poor country. They just had to deal with the most corrupt leader they had ever experienced. Russia has somehow convinced it's citizens that ultra-nationalists have taken over the country. In reality closer ties with the EU require tolerance for minorities.
The elections are due at the end of May. All Russia would have to do to insure that a Russian sympathetic government is elected is to continue with an information war. It was/is unnecessary to send in the army, other than to carve out pieces of Ukraine.
Re:We need a US base in the Ukraine (Score:4, Interesting)
"Which means every country in the world will (and ought, if they intend to remain safe) seek nuclear weapons to prevent this kind of aggression in the future".
Yes, that certainly is the lesson of Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Iran, and Syria... in contrast to Pakistan and North Korea. The strong do as they will, the weak as they must. Iraq was invaded, and Iran has been threatened and harassed, precisely because they were known NOT to have "WMD". Don't be distracted or confused by the things politicians say: instead, watch what they do.