SAN DIEGO: In a quickly changing environment, Biden now flip-flops canceling the planned deployment of two warships to the Black Sea, near Crimea according to Turkish officials and as reported by AFP. All this amid high tensions between Russia and Ukraine. Turkish diplomatic sources said the passage of the first ship through the Bosphorus due on Wednesday did not take place.
The hubris of the Biden administration may have ignored that Ankara must be given at least 15 days’ notice before sending warships through the Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits under the terms of the 1936 Montreux Convention.
The Montreux Convention of 1936 [20 July 1936, 173 LNTS 213,219] was ratified by Turkey, Great Britain, France, the USSR, Bulgaria, Greece, Germany, Yugoslavia, and Japan (with reservations). While the United States is not a signatory to the Convention, it has historically always complied with its provision.
Turkey controls the warm-water naval access of Russia, Ukraine, and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Control of the straits between the Black and the Mediterranean Seas has long been a matter of keen interest to Russia, as well as other nations bordering the Black Sea.”
The Convention permitted Turkey to remilitarise the Straits. The treaty’s terms allow foreign warships to stay in the Black Sea for 21 days.
Turkey announced that through diplomatic channels that two U.S. warships “will pass toward the Black Sea” and remain in the region until May 4. The deployment a result of a significant escalation of conflict between Russian-backed separatists and U.S. and European-backed Ukraine forces in eastern Ukraine.
Is it that Biden failed to provide such notification before ordering the deployment of the ships? Ankara has not yet informed of any possible rescheduling.
This is all surprising as was the announcement from Russia’s news agency TASS two days ago,
Russia accused U.S. and NATO of moving 40,000 troops near the Russian borders in the Black Sea and Baltic regions, along with military equipment and weapons. Sources contacted for verification of the deployment have not responded.
Defense Minister Army General Sergey Shoygu told military chiefs in a video conference in the city of Severodvinsk that the troops are “redeploying from continental North America to Europe through the Atlantic,” reports TASS, a Russian News agency and Turkish Anadolu Agency (AA).
The defense chief adds, “The basic forces are being amassed in the Black Sea area and in the Baltic region.“
Russia redeployed two army and three airborne units to its western border “to counter the threat,” says AA. Reuters confirms,
“In the first public Russian description of the build-up, Minister Shoygu said Moscow had moved two armies and three paratrooper units to its western border as part of a large snap drill meant to test combat readiness and respond to what he called threatening military action by NATO.”
Russia tells the U.S. to stay away from Ukraine for its “own good.”
Are U.S./NATO stepping up threats in the Black Sea?
With opposing warships in the same waters, anything can happen. A misfire, a stray too close, can trigger a defensive response.
Apparently, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg discussed on Monday “the need for Russia to end its buildup of forces along the Ukrainian borders and occupied Crimea.”
To Russia, Crimea is their territory, voted by 97% of Crimeans as annexed. Crimeans claimed it was more of a re-joining after the 2014 Ukraine coup. Obviously, to other entities interested in Crimea’s rich resources including onshore and offshore oil and gas – Crimea is ‘occupied’.
Russia has warned that will perceive any ballistic missile launched at its territory as a nuclear attack that warrants a nuclear retaliation, reports Military Times.
“In a Krasnaya Zvezda article, senior officers of the Russian military’s General Staff, Maj. Gen. Andrei Sterlin and Col. Alexander Khryapin, noted that there will be no way to determine if an incoming ballistic missile is fitted with a nuclear or a conventional warhead, and so the military will see it as a nuclear attack,”
“Any attacking missile will be perceived as carrying a nuclear warhead,” the article said. “The information about the missile launch will be automatically relayed to the Russian military-political leadership, which will determine the scope of retaliatory action by nuclear forces depending on the evolving situation.”
Ukraine’s intent to de-occupy Crimea helped by U.S. defense package.
On March 24, 2021, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a declaration of war against Russia,
“Presidential Decree No. 117/2021 establishes the “de-occupation and reintegration of the temporarily occupied territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol.”
Defense Chief Lloyd Austin confirming support via “a recent $125 million package that featured defensive weapons and other key capabilities to enhance the lethality, command, and control and situational awareness of Ukraine’s Armed Forces.”
It’s not about the people for ‘concerned governments’ egging on Ukraine’s conflicts. If it was, they’d ask them what they want. Journalist Eva Bartlett traveled to Crimea to see the region for herself and report,
In the Donbas region (an area in Eastern Ukraine/Southwestern Russia contested), “the turmoil of Ukraine’s Maidan coup in 2014 set things in motion for the people in the region to declare independence and form the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics,” MPN News reports in 2019.
The Maidan Coup of 2014.
EuroMaidan is the new search name for the infamous massacre, a student protest gone horrifically bad and bloody. A policy disagreement over competing trade agreements triggered the uprising.
Democratically-elected President Yanukovych unilaterally delayed the signing of the European Union Association Agreement. It was a pro-European, anti-Russia agreement, a deal Yanukovych’s then-advisor Paul Manafort advised him to adopt. But Yanukovych pulled out.
It was the abrupt policy shift from Pro-European to Pro-Russian by the second Azarov government that propelled the thousands of demonstrators (predominantly young students) to go out onto the streets,” says sciencedirect.com
Not unlike the unrest we see in America from ANTIFA and BLM protesters. Their marches turn to violence, burning, injury and death. While Democrats ignore the riots in this country – they exploit riots in others.
It’s hard believe that a Ukraine civil war started over a trade agreement.
The student protest quickly evolved into mass action of a national scope against the existing power. Sniper fire ripped into the crowd attacking both sides killing students and security forces. Blame went to Russia immediately. Members of Berkut, the Ukraine Special Force were charged with the brutal beatings of the peaceful protesters on Maidan Nezalezhnosti (translated as “Independence Square”), says sciencedirect.com When really,
According to Sputnik International, General Tristan Tsitelashvili, erstwhile commander of the Georgian Army’s elite Avaza unit, was the first to expose the fact it was Georgian snipers were firing onto Maidan Square. Shocking New Evidence: Maidan snipers confess they were under orders from Coup leaders to shoot police AND protesters
Sound like a familiar rush to judgment? Democrats Push New Extreme Anti-Police Agenda After Rashida Tlaib Calls For ‘No More Policing’
Nuland made a mess of things in Ukraine.
Former Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland had passed out cookies to anti-Yanukovych demonstrators at the Maidan square, reminded Ukrainian business leaders that the U.S. had invested $5 billion in their “European aspirations,” and discussed with U.S. Ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt who the new leaders of Ukraine should be. “Yats is the guy,” she said, referring to Arseniy Yatsenyuk,” says Consortium News.
Nuland convinced U.S. mainstream media the coup wasn’t really a coup but a victory for democracy. An ousting of Yanukovych followed and he fled to Russia. Pro-west puppet leader Petro Poroshenko took over.
The coup led Moscow to seize the territory of Crimea.
They organized a referendum on March 16, 2014, which led to 97 percent of Crimeans voting to join Russia, according to the official results.
Tata – a Russian woman moved to Crimea in 2012 and had this to say, Return to Russia: Crimeans Tell the Real Story of the 2014 Referendum and Their Lives Since
“I never saw so many people in my life go out to vote, of their own free will. There was a period before the referendum, maybe about two months, during which there were two holidays: International Women’s Day, March 8, and Defender of the Fatherland Day, February 23.
Normally, people would go away on vacation during these holidays. But that year, Crimeans didn’t go anywhere; they wanted to be sure they were here during the referendum. We felt the sense of a miracle about to happen. People were anxiously awaiting the referendum.
Only Crimean citizens could sign it. This was the fairway to do it.”
The U.S. military’s job is to defend the Constitution, not topple governments.
Only politicians do that.
Biden stated recently he’s pulling all troops out of Afghanistan by September 11, 2021. “The Afghan government will struggle to hold the Taliban at bay if the coalition withdraws support,” a U.S. Intelligence Community report states.
We saw the 20-year futility of the Afghan War. Resulting in the stinging loss of thousands of America’s sons and daughters and future generations. What Did the U.S. Get for $2 Trillion in Afghanistan?
There is no sustainable government to account for the cost of that war. The Taliban control much of the territory. Peace talks went around in circles. While the Taliban kept killing troops, Afghan Security Forces, and Afghan citizens including women and children.
Are we heading into another senseless war, threatening nuclear consequences that would devastate life? With suffering untold. Millions could die. All over oil and gas disputes that have been ongoing for years? Oil, we had plenty of before Biden canceled the U.S. pipeline. Putting thousands out of a job.
Or is this about Democrats muscling into countries to reform them?
Globalists strive to force their idea of democracy which is not a free republic – far from it. This time the adversary defending its territory outmatches us nuclear warhead to nuclear warhead.
Yet Reuters reports, Biden called on Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday to reduce tensions stirred up at Russia/Ukraine’s borders and proposed a summit of the estranged leaders to tackle a raft of disputes. Good luck with that as Biden calls Putin “a killer” and vows “he’ll pay a price.”
Biden was publicly proud of his role in deposing Ukraine’s prosecutor general, Viktor Shokin in 2016. The VP threatened then-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko with $1.2 billion of loan guarantees if he did not comply. He and his son Hunter gained insider profit from Ukraine’s vast energy resources. Biden also takes credit for the two-day impeachment of Yanukovych in 2014,” says Daily Torch.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, a chief architect of the 2014 U.S.-backed coup promises full U.S. support for the “territorial integrity” of Ukraine.
Why are they not concerned about the border integrity of the United States?
Is Ukraine and Crimea’s destiny determined by the people or the resources?
Much of Russian gas passes through Ukraine as they border the Black Sea. The sea links southeast Europe with Russia. The destabilization of Ukraine would lead to an energy crisis in Europe, as there are four European countries dependent on Russian gas. One being Finland and you don’t want an energy shortage in Finland in the winter. As we see, there are far-reaching consequences to the COUP D’ETAT IN THE UKRAINE
The name “Ukraine” means “on the edge.” Everyone’s fighting for influence over Ukraine and its power play to see who falls off the edge first.
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