We are likely about to be in a conflict as North Korea, China, Iran, and Russia have all started acting up. Russia in particular has amassed a large number of troops at the border of Ukraine and it looks like they are about to try and take over the rest of the country. They took over Crimea back in 2014. So we have sent two warships over to the Black Sea as a show of support for Ukraine.
“Turkey, a NATO ally, said on Friday the United States would deploy two warships to the Black Sea from April 14-15.
“A notice was sent to us 15 days ago via diplomatic channels that two U.S. warships would pass to the Black Sea, in line with the Montreux Convention. The ships will remain in the Black Sea until May 4,” Turkey’s foreign ministry said.”
Russia commented about our naval deployment.
“Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko raised concerns on Friday over what he said was increasing Black Sea naval activity by powers that did not have a coastline in the region, an apparent reference to the United States.
“The number of visits by NATO countries and the length of the stay of (their) warships has increased,” he was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency.”
Ukrainians think the conflict is unavoidable.
“Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has little hope that war can be avoided. Moscow’s demands are impossible to meet.
“A diplomatic solution…requires a radical change in the position of the Kyiv authorities,” said Konstantin Sivkov, a Moscow-based military analyst. “If the Kyiv authorities agree to the recognition of the federal structure of Ukraine if the authorities agree to the equal status of the Russian language in Ukraine along with the Ukrainian language, then the whole problem in [Donbas] will be removed,” he said.
The Ukrainians fear that giving Russia further opportunity to undermine the government in Kyiv will only result in the slow erosion of their independence.
“The cease-fire is over…and President Zelensky’s strategy of negotiating something with Moscow is generally over,” said Mykola Kapitonenko, an associate professor at the Institute of International Relations in Kyiv and consultant to Ukraine’s parliamentary committee on foreign affairs.”
“On 12 June 2020, Ukraine joined NATO’s enhanced opportunity partner interoperability program. According to an official, NATO statement the new status “does not prejudge any decisions on NATO membership.”
And now Russia is upping the ante…
Ukrainian presidential spokeswoman Iuliia Mendel “said Russia had massed more than 40,000 troops on Ukraine’s eastern border, and more than 40,000 in Crimea, the region that Putin unilaterally annexed away from Ukraine and declared Russian in 2014.”
So Russia is upset that we are not going to sit back and just allow them to take over the rest of Ukraine. But 80k troops is a pretty serious sign that this could turn into a real conflict quickly. Two Warships are not going to be enough to stop Russia and this would be a direct conflict with Russia. This Ukrainian conflict could be the catalyst to a much bigger war as Russia is allied with everyone that opposes us.