Friday, February 11, 2022

Ukraine Crisis Live Updates

Bloomberg: Biden, Putin to Talk Saturday With Tensions High: Ukraine Update 

 (Bloomberg) -- Presidents Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin will speak Saturday as tensions soar over the Ukraine crisis, according to a U.S. official. The U.S. said intelligence indicates Russia may attack Ukraine before the Olympics end on Feb. 20. Russia has said it has no intention of invading. 

Russia pushed back after NATO and the European Union said they’d only provide a collective response to its proposals on a regional security framework. Moscow had been seeking individual replies from each member nation of the EU. 

Western allies are seeking to show unity in the face of Russia’s military buildup near the Ukraine border, bolstering NATO’s eastern flank with added troops and threatening joint sanctions against Moscow if it were to invade Ukraine.Biden said conditions in the region could “go crazy quickly” as he urged Americans to leave Ukraine, and he held a call Friday with other leaders to discuss the tensions.  

Read more .... 

More Updates On The Ukraine Crisis  

Blinken says Russian invasion 'could begin at any time,' including during Olympics: LIVE UPDATES -- FOX News  

White House confirms Biden-Putin call on Saturday – as it happened -- The Guardian  

The latest on Ukraine and Russia tensions -- CNN  

Latest Ukraine updates: Several countries urge nationals to leave -- Al Jazeera  

Russia Blasts White House's Fresh Friday Ukraine Panic Porn As "Distraction & Disinformation" - Updates -- Zero Hedge

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

"US Embassy in Kiev is to be EVACUATED as Russia mobilizes for 'invasion of Ukraine on Wednesday': Biden will call Putin from Camp David at 11am in a final bid to avoid war" - DM

Let's assume for arguments sake that US intel is correct. Putin does intend to invade on Wednesday. Let assume also that although the US knows, he intends invade anyway.

He has looked at the US and determined that it is weak in the wake of the BLM riots and the COVIDS lockdowns. He sees the Democrats as having torn society apart for their own advancement

Anonymous said...

why would Putin even agree to talk to Biden? All he will get is more threats.

B.Poster said...

Good question. I see 3 main possible answers that I will list in order of what I believe are the most and least likely.

1.) He wants peace but the provocative nature of our leadership class and a few Ukrainians are making this problematic at best. He's likely figured out that negotiating in good faith with these people isn't possible. Furthermore he knows he needs allies when the shooting war actually commences and they're going to want to know he's made every effort to defuse the situation. You could say he's "checking the boxes." To this end, he's building an impressive network of allies. In contrast our "allies" are going to peel away from us quite quickly once a shooting war commences. They have mission critical business relations with Russia that aren't negotiable. I could go on.

2.) I'm reading it's Team Biden who requested this meeting. To use a poker analogy, Team Putin holds the "high cards." America does not. When it becomes clear that one's opponent has the better hand the appropriate response is "fold" and our leadership class is desperately searching for a face saving way to do this.

3.) For Russia to lose Crimea is only a minor inconvenience. The US leadership class appears to have a number of bad business interests in Ukraine and likeky elsewhere in the world that need protecting and they definitely don't want to be "found out" and they're willing to deploy nukes to protect this. Essentially it's life or death for them and they'll fight to the death. The rest of us are expendable to them. Obviously Putin would want to do everything possible to try and defuse this situation hence yet another meeting is deemed worthwhile.