Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan meets with Ukraine s President Volodymyr Zelensky in Istanbul, Turkey, on April 10, 2021 [Murat Cetinmuhurdar/Presidential Press Office/Handout via Reuters]
On April 10, President Volodymyr Zelensky made his way to Istanbul to take part in the ninth meeting of the Turkish-Ukrainian High-Level Strategic Cooperation Council. The primary purpose of his visit was to solicit support from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan against Russia, a more pressing priority than trade and investment.
In recent weeks, Ukraine has been feeling the heat. Since the end of March, Moscow has been amassing troops on the Ukrainian-Russian border. According to Kyiv, there are currently about 40,000 Russian troops in the area, not far from the frontlines in the Donbass, and the same number in Crimea which was annexed by Russia in 2014.
NO FLY ZONE
Russia deploys 50 warplanes to Black Sea as US warns airlines they could be shot down over Ukraine like flight MH17
Will Stewart
Updated: 17 Apr 2021, 12:23
Will Stewart
Invalid Date,
RUSSIA is today conducting major aerial exercises including missile launches and bombings involving 50 warplanes over the Black Sea as it flexes its military muscle.
The US has warned commercial pilots against overflying the potential war zone around eastern Ukraine, according to a report, amid fears they could be shot down like flight MH17.
5
5
A detachment of ships of the Caspian flotilla passing under the Crimean bridgeCredit: Social media
During the last “hot” conflict in the region, a Malaysia Alrlines Boeing 777 - flight MH17 - was shot out of the sky by pro-Moscow rebels, killing 298 people, in July 2014.
Ukraineâs military chief urges authorities to refrain from creating armed formations
As Ukraineâs military chief Ruslan Khomchak claimed, such actions might be exploited by Russia for its purposes
KIEV, April 17. /TASS/. Ukrainian Army Commander-in-Chief Colonel-General Ruslan Khomchak urged authorities and local administrations to refrain from sowing panic over the Russian troop’s movements near the country’s borders and creating armed formations. … I request representatives of state authorities and local administrations to refrain from instigating the situation and sowing panic sentiments in society. I urge to refrain from shifting the emphasis by creating militarized formations that are not stipulated by law, says the statement posted on the Facebook of the Ukrainian General Staff.
Italian web newspaper) explains the framework of the growing crisis. Translation: John Catalinotto.
Ukraine’s neo-Nazis killed dozens of activists by burning down Trade Union House, May 2, 2014.
U.S. F-16 fighter jets, sent from the Aviano base, are engaged in “complex air operations” in Greece, where the Iniochos 21 exercise began April 12. They belong to the 510th Fighter Squadron stationed at Aviano, northern Italy, whose role is indicated by their emblem: the symbol of the atom, with three lightning bolts striking the earth, flanked by the imperial eagle. Thus they are nuclear attack aircraft, the ones used by the U.S. Air Force in Greece, which in 2020 conceded to the United States the use of all its military bases.
A
The almost theatrical massing of Russian troops on the Ukrainian border in recent days, which some researchers have described as the heaviest since 2015, brings home to Western leaders an uncomfortable truth: If Russia had the appetite for a major military operation, Ukraine would be at its mercy.
Putin the opportunist, who seized a moment of confusion in 2014 to grab Crimea, surely sees a similar chance now, and he has little to fear at home if he launches a military operation. Yet there are good reasons to conclude that what Putin really wants is not more Ukrainian territory, but greater respect from the US and his European neighbors for what he thinks of as his ability to advance Russia’s interests.