Putin to invade Ukraine next week, according to U.S. officials
Source: PBS
The United States believes Russian President Vladimir Putin has decided to invade Ukraine and has communicated those plans to the Russian military, Western and defense officials have told the PBS NewsHour...
... “We are not saying that a decision has been taken by President Putin,” Sullivan said. “What we are saying is that we have a sufficient level of concern based on what we are seeing on the ground, and what our intelligence analysts have picked up, that we are sending this clear message.”
Defense officials anticipate a bloody campaign that begins with two days of aerial bombardment and electronic warfare, followed by an invasion, with the possible goal of regime change.
NATO Ambassador Julie Smith briefed the North Atlantic Council on this new intelligence this morning.
Read more: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/putin-to-invade-ukraine-next-week-according-to-u-s-officials
That's "official" then?
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underpants
(196,498 posts)Just like he did in 2014 with Crimea after the Sochi games.
BigmanPigman
(55,151 posts)the Olympics providing cover for an invasion.
Pachamama
(17,564 posts)
bucolic_frolic
(55,142 posts)Big Lie strategy lives!
NurseJackie
(42,862 posts)... and effectively giving them cover while willingly thwarting and working AGAINST the best interests of the United States and the world for that matter. Truly shameful. For obvious reasons, I won't dignify them by mentioning specific names, but we all know who they are.
Wicked Blue
(8,868 posts)blue-wave
(5,131 posts)I don't care what their excuse is. There is no excuse for stabbing the country, who has given them so much, in the back. Traitors to the last one.
"There are but two parties now: traitors and patriots. And I want hereafter to be ranked with the latter and, I trust, the stronger party." Ulysses S. Grant
Eyeball_Kid
(7,604 posts)Putin will be learning something about Biden that wasn't true with Trump. Biden has resolve and commitment. If he says that he'll strip Russia of any economic capabiities, he's not bluffing. Biden and NATO will make Putin regret his mistake many times over. Putin is misreading the tea leaves. He's vastly overestimating the strength of the anti-government, anti-democracy movement. Trump, IMO, gave Putin the false impression that an invasion of Ukraine would be a cakewalk. It's Putin who has the gaping vulnerability.
Javaman
(65,711 posts)World politics, arms control, world economy, energy supplies, just to name an obvious few
FailureToCommunicate
(14,605 posts)term, and complete his mission to weaken Western democracies.
God help us.
rockfordfile
(8,742 posts)Eyeball_Kid
(7,604 posts)Does he even understand what the nature of defiance really is?
manicdem
(536 posts)This is just half of it. If no one stops Putin, then it encourages China to invade Taiwan which would cause worldwide problems beyond this.
Marthe48
(23,175 posts)I noticed over the years that a country will indicate when their troops will move, and then jump in ahead. I noticed the early move happened with Grenada, and Operation Desert Storm.
Roc2020
(1,787 posts)FACT: We are staring into WW111. How does the world stop that. To HECK with Trump!!! This is now focus one!!
paleotn
(22,218 posts)Gonna cost him big time.
Ligyron
(8,006 posts)Probably expected little opposition from Biden and NATO. The Ukraine should ask to join, that would really mix things up.
marie999
(3,334 posts)
former9thward
(33,424 posts)NATO told them no and has told them no since then.
IronLionZion
(51,269 posts)It sounds like not much. Just some sanctions. 
CanonRay
(16,171 posts)Says that an attack on one is an attack on all. We invoked this after 9-11. If Ukraine was in NATO, most of Europe and us and Canada would be at war with Russia.
IronLionZion
(51,269 posts)Putin has openly promised to invade if they accept Ukraine, but he will probably invade anyway. So now what?
JohnnyRingo
(20,870 posts)Last edited Fri Feb 11, 2022, 07:21 PM - Edit history (1)
Unfortunately, there's a lot of Ukraine between Russia and the warm port of Kiev.
I don't believe Russia has any other deep warm water ports, except perhaps Murmansk, and they need it. Bad enough to take it.
one important point about this current crisis
EX500rider
(12,583 posts)And Russia has ports in the Crimea now.
IronLionZion
(51,269 posts)and right now they parked most of the Russian Navy out in the Atlantic and Mediterranean just in case NATO decides to blockade the sea routes in the Baltic and Black Sea.
jgmiller
(688 posts)and unfortunately we've proven him right and again. I'm not saying we should start WW3 over the Ukraine but if nothing happens to him again if he does this then he will just do it next other former soviet republics. He's not old, he's very healthy and he has the support of the oligarchs. He's not going anywhere any time soon so at some point he needs to be put back in his box or he will cause a bigger conflict later.
I feel sorry for the Russian people but as long as he stays here and just rips them off then there's not need to remove him it's when he tries this stuff that he's dangerous to the rest of the world.
manicdem
(536 posts)This is right, he'll just keep on going until he has the Soviet Union formed again.
C Moon
(13,643 posts)He'll agree to withdraw with certain terms.
And innocent people will die, just so putin can look like he's in control.
Shanti Shanti Shanti
(12,047 posts)Plus he would have to occupy ground to hold territory, a foolish move uniting all of NATO against him with sanctions too.
toopers
(1,224 posts)identifies as Russian. I am not sure that everyone in the Ukraine would stand up against Russian rule.
chocolatpi
(7,888 posts)Я плохо говорю по-русски! (ya plokho govoryu po-russki): My Russian is bad!
Putin speaks and reads English. He has an accent but is nuanced in his word choice.
If the NATO allies stick together, he may back down.
There is a video of Putin on Youtube showing his piano and singing talent, cough, cough. I didn't want to link it here.
LiberalLovinLug
(14,689 posts)Hilarious in a black humour way, how the US spends more for the MIC than every nation combined, which all US taxpayers pay dearly for. Yet they, combined with all the other western nations, with those military as well, Putin just laughs off.
What is the point of all that spending?
Then there's the economic sanctions side of things. How can Russia not be isolated from the increasingly global economy? I suspect the answer is MONEY. And how multinational corporations are intertwined and participate in the Russian economy. And that also covers military response.
Corporations don't really care if the Ukraine is run by Ukraines or Russians. And western powers are led by those corporations. It is they who will decide if the fallout from not stopping the invasion is worth it financially compared to simply watching the attack with popcorn, and then playing ball with Putin's new Ukraine.
EX500rider
(12,583 posts)Global defense spending is around $1.92 trillion, the US military budget is $686.1 billion.
The US doesn't not even crack the top 10 in spending as % of GDP.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_military_expenditures#Military_expenditure,_share_of_GDP
byronius
(7,973 posts)History. It’ll be him or us. So long, you lunatic crackhead.
Polybius
(21,902 posts)Do you think Ukraine can defeat him?
byronius
(7,973 posts)He's trapped. Either he militarily reassembles the former Soviet Union and then rises to dominate the world, or the world finally does what we all know should be done -- seize his assets, shut down his hacking pods, and let his army of assassins consume him because they're not being paid and everyone engages in tragedy of the commons at the end of the sad, sad story of Russia as a monarchic ne'er-do-well.
Sure, it could go the other way. The US has its electrical grid in their bear paws because racist greedheads who wrap themselves in the flag were perfectly willing to sell their nation for the chance to keep that precious fifteenth house. We're not invulnerable. Perhaps we'll be so frightened of their rusting nuclear arsenal that we'll roll over and submit to enslavement because we're a hollowed-out empire too busy watching Netflix and chuckling at the mean-folk dialogue to care.
But History. History says you can keep your little fake dictator/democracy until you step over the line and rock the world's boat. He's either got to pull it off and go all the way or lose -- there's no middle ground anymore, he's stepped in it. Vlad's rolled the dice -- surely he can use conventional military forces to rule the planet, right? Worked way back when his worldview was formed.
He won't survive this. He's made an error because he has to -- this is his programming. Vladimir Putin doesn't have what it takes to pull this off -- I think he's frustrated and bored and probably secretly wants to die, it's a classic syndrome of men like this.
Tick tock. All of us or him. I do not imagine for a second that 2020 Earth lets a conniving pipsqueak ascend to permanent authoritarian rule. There will come a lashback that should, if all goes according to plan, reboot the oligarch-and-gangster culture and reset Russia back to some reasonably democratic path.
I could cite dozens of examples of this exact array of factors from multiple modern power-struggles. But really, just take it back to tribal dynamics. Strong-man rule is inefficient -- it works well in the short run but cannot survive, especially against more stable cooperative groups. The weakness of his position is clear -- he must either conquer or face erasure by the other gangsters, this is the Rule Of Gangster Culture. And he cannot conquer.
Sharp animal cunning can go far if the mask remains on, if the distracted powers are not provoked, if the focus remains on maintaining the status quo. But now he's gone and Done It.
Whoops.
roamer65
(37,953 posts)There will be an EU army, navy and air force that come from a Russian invasion of Ukraine.
greenjar_01
(6,477 posts)Interesting how our Mideast wars are over and now we're all like, hey, wait a second, deployments, equipment needed, err, durr, harumph.
How dumb are we?
Ghost Dog
(16,881 posts)and positions in power.
Ghost Dog
(16,881 posts)Last edited Sat Feb 12, 2022, 06:27 AM - Edit history (2)
"The White House hysteria is more revealing than ever. The Anglo-Saxons need a war. At any cost. Provocations, disinformation, and threats are favorite methods of solving their own problems,” she wrote in a post on her Telegram channel. "Road roller of the American military-political machine is ready to go through people's lives. The whole world is watching how militarism, imperial ambitions denounce themselves. And a propaganda brigade chaired by Bloomberg serving all this."
Zakharova said the position of Western officials "in conditions of a mass disinformation campaign against Russia" is worth a separate mention -- avoiding giving a proper assessment of what is happening, the authorities validate their involvement in "fakes."...
... "We can talk about the collusion of the authorities of Western countries and the media in order to escalate artificial tension around Ukraine by the massive and coordinated publication of false information in geopolitical interests, in particular, to distract attention from their own aggressive actions," she wrote...
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/world/moscow-slams-reports-about-imminent-invasion-of-ukraine-as-disinformation-campaign-against-russia/2500496#
I see that both sides accuse each other of organising "false flag" operations to provoke conflict in Eastern Ukraine...
Here's a response from China:
But they pointed out the Biden administration has seriously misjudged itself and the international situation because the US today, deeply split and plagued by domestic problems, has neither the capability to contain two major powers simultaneously, nor the leadership to maintain trust from allies...
https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202202/1252049.shtml
Here are some establishment insiders looking for more funding for "information warfare":
... The terms “information warfare,” or “information operations” includes military information support operations that are carried out by special operators. Sometimes still referred to as “psychological operations,” or psy-ops, these specialists use various means to influence local populations or leaders to help combatant commanders achieve certain results on the battlefield. Strategically, information operations are used by governments to influence populations or other governments.
“Disinformation campaigns” — normally the realm of intelligence agencies — are covert efforts to intentionally spread false or misleading information, according to a policy brief by the Center for Security and Emerging Technology titled, “AI and the Future of Disinformation Campaigns.” Whether it is the State Department, Special Operations Command or the Defense Department, no single agency “owns this space,” Sundwall said...
https://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/articles/2022/2/11/still-playing-catch-up-in-information-operations
Icanthinkformyself
(388 posts)were in charge we would be supporting their good buddy, Putie. If there is a war it will be called WWIII and it will not end well for anyone. Once again, the g-d damn white people of Europe cant' get along with each other and the rest of the world suffers for it. The middle East's constant turmoil will look like fun in comparison.
Roc2020
(1,787 posts)discntnt_irny_srcsm
(18,764 posts)Eyeball_Kid
(7,604 posts)I'm guessing this, but since the US created and controls much of the world's internet system, it also knows more about cybersecurity, or "insecurity" than anyone else. By a long shot.
If Putin were to use cyberattacks to disrupt communications within and outside Ukraine, we should expect that Russia will get bombarded into the megaphone and wired telephone age with the west's own capabiities. The US and Europe know what to do. Biden has already told Putin that he'll be in a world of hurt, perhaps permanently, if he were to read the tea leaves the wrong way. He's right. And to be sure, he's not a know-nothing con-artist Trump, who would allow Putin to walk all over him for a meager moment of flattery.
byronius
(7,973 posts)I look forward to Russia's Reboot.
XanaDUer2
(15,772 posts)I saw a segment about a mother of 3 and her attempts to stabilize her kids' lives at this time. The PBS Newshour
Josiesdad
(65 posts)The reason I say that is that it is my understanding that a lot of Ukraine's eastern frontier is swampy ground and an armored assault really loses quite a bit of it's punch if they only travel on the roadways. The speculation was that the Russians would wait till the coldest month, February, to launch any kind of attack knowing that the swamps would be frozen over. The temps over there are unseasonably warm and way above freezing every day so that part of the plan is not working out.
As Tom Clancy once quipped... "The tactics...no, amateurs discuss tactics,.... Professional soldiers study logistics."