Hagel: Growing Threat Of Russia Invading Ukraine

[Purveyor]

STUTTGART, Germany (AP) — Russia's troop buildup on the Ukrainian border increases the threat of an invasion by President Vladimir Putin's army, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Wednesday.
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Speaking to reporters at U.S. European Command in Stuttgart, Germany, Hagel said he agrees with Poland's foreign minister, who said Wednesday that the increase in Russian forces near Ukraine's border heightened the risk of an invasion.

"I think it's a reality, of course it is," said Hagel, who was in Stuttgart for meetings with his military leaders in Europe, including the top commander, Air Force Gen. Philip Breedlove. "When you see the build-up of Russian troops and the sophistication of those troops, the training of those troops, the heavy military equipment that's being put along that border, of course it's a reality, it's a threat, it's a possibility - absolutely," Hagel said.

U.S. and NATO officials say there are now about 20,000 Russian troops massed just east of Ukraine's border. The U.S. also says Russia continues to train and equip separatists battling Ukraine's government.

Russia has repeatedly rejected Ukrainian and Western claims of a military buildup on the border.

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http://news.yahoo.com/hagel-growing-threat-russia-invading-ukraine-153704305--politics.html;_ylt=AwrSyCObdOJTDDcAS87_wgt.

[Jefferson23]

1. Not good. n/t

[TwilightGardener]

2. How does Russia plausibly deny what everyone else is apparently seeing?

"This is not what it looks like!"

[Igel]

3. They're confused.

They lived in an age when there were no suicides or plane crashes, when economic plans weren't just always fulfilled but overfulfilled.

If you deny it, it doesn't exist.

By continuing to deny it, it just muddies the water. Until there's absolute clarity the counterclaims might be true--and there's wiggle room for action that suits Russia.

[NuclearDem]

4. Those are some awful big cookies assembling on the border.