January 31, 2022
By Yuliya Talmazan
...The double salvo of diplomatic and economic pressure (click here) came as the West looked to ward off a potential Russian invasion of its neighbor. Ukraine says the Kremlin has now massed 130,000 troops on its border; Moscow has denied planning any attack but issued bold security demands to the U.S. and NATO....
Russia claims this is just normal military exercises. Why is it there are so many who believe this is more? Because it has happened before in Crimea and Eastern Ukraine. Russia still has not earned the trust of it's neighbors.
By Andrew Roth
Russia (click here) has begun moving troops to Ukraine’s northern neighbour Belarus for joint military exercises, in a move likely to increase fears in the west that Moscow is preparing for an invasion.
The joint military exercises, named United Resolve, are to take place as Russia also musters forces along Ukraine’s eastern border, threatening a potential invasion that could unleash the largest conflict in Europe for decades.
Social media videos from Belarus appeared to show artillery and other military vehicles arriving on flatbed carriages owned by the Russian state railway company, and Alexander Volfovich, the head of Belarus’s security council, said in a briefing that troops were already arriving before exercises scheduled for February....
By Lorenzo Tondo
...What was a customs centre in the village of Bruzgi (Belarus) (click here) has been turned into a dormitory for asylum seekers. The EU has accused Belarus’s leader, Alexander Lukashenko, of deliberately provoking a new refugee crisis by organising the movement of people from the Middle East to Minsk and promising them a safe passage to Europe. Lukashenko’s critics say the exploitation of these people is a callous reprisal for sanctions that Brussels has imposed on his regime....
An unguarded border for Ukraine.
January 29, 2022
By Michael Schwitz
Novi Yarylovychi border crossing of Ukraine (click here) - On the other side of this border in northern Ukraine, not visible through the thick pine and birch forests that crowd the E-95 highway but noticeable to passing truckers, a force is gathering in Belarus more potent than anything seen in the country since the fall of the Soviet Union, officials and military analysts say....
