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Russian threat to Ukraine reaches new stage: report

PR dla Zagranicy
Roberto Galea 03.04.2017 16:17
“Recent Russian actions suggest a new stage of the Russian threat to Ukraine – and potentially to the Caucasus, Belarus, or the Baltic States,” according to an article published on the Atlantic Council website.
Photo: Wikimedia CommonsPhoto: Wikimedia Commons

The article for the Washington-based think-tank added that the moves could “presage a new large-scale military operation”.

“First, in 2016, Russia created twenty-five division formations and fifteen brigades, while raising manpower by only 10,000 men,” the article penned by Stephen Blank, a Senior Fellow at the American Foreign Policy Council, said.

“Second, as part of that military process in 2016-2017, Moscow created the 1st Guards Tank Army, the 40th Army, and the 8th Army, and deployed them all around Ukraine’s borders,” the article added.

It said that this “suggests the possibility that Russia may aim to wage protracted large-scale war using the Soviet model, with a Soviet-type army composed of ‘skeleton units’ that existed solely on paper until they were called up as part of the process of mass mobilisation.”

Russian cyber strikes against various Ukrainian institutions are continuing, the article said, adding that there has also been a steady escalation in the number and size of Russian forces’ ceasefire violations since the beginning of 2017.

“All of these actions, taken with the impending August/September Zapad-2017 exercise in Belarus, give rise to fears of a new intervention either in Ukraine, Belarus, or even the Caucasus, based on recent Russian deployments and actions.”

(rg/pk)

tags: Russia
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