The trophy Putin wants and needs to not invading the whole Ukraine. The "face-saving" way out of this.

These regions as independent states de facto are then Russian vasalls, allies. And another inflammatory wound in the Ukraine's flank, keeping Moscow in game with Ukrainian internal policies.

Ort its just a relativization of the announcement of an troop withdrawel. Its Russian tactics since long time to do two mutually contradicting things simultaneously to confuse the opponent and keep him off balance.

Its also another provocation that maybe is meant to still go to war, but making the West responsible for it after it has rejected to accept this Russian step: then he can say "it is your fault, we showed you a way out and you said No."

Thank you Skybird.

Why do I have the feeling it will deepen the crisis even more-Not from Russian side though, but from the Ukrainian side of the table.

Markus

The only one "deepening" the crisis here is Russia. Ukraine is the victim.

Yes Ukraine is the victim here. What I meant was that Ukraine does not approve the step taken by the Russian Dumas. They will do anything to retake these two region.

Another thing-They(The Ukrainian) say Russia will attack tomorrow 16th of Feb.

Going to be interesting to see if it happens- Or Maybe you right Putin has got a face-saving by acknowledge these two Region.

Markus

Helpful comments or otherwise?

Which is understandable, but still the main reason for me why I do not want to have them in NATO, no matter what. Biden was right a few days ago: when Americans - or NATO troops, for that matter - start to shoot at Russians, then that is a world war going up. The Ukraine, corrupt and failed as it is, to me is not worth a world war.

Then, as if things couldn't get any worse.

:O:

It's interesting to read other peoples response to the article being posted on FB or Twitter. Many are convince there's no crisis, no 100000 Russian soldiers near the Ukrainian border-It's a made-up story by our politicians here in the west.

There are those who are Pro-Putin in their comments.

There are those who want a war between Russia and NATO.

I Hope there will not be a war between these two-It would histories shortest WWIII.

Markus

I don't think a war was ever on the cards in the Ukraine, Putin just has to flex his muscles and every military man in the west stands to attention all bug eyed while they're pissing their pants. :haha:
What this debacle has shown to Putin is that the western european nations are weak and disunited, he'll work on that using propaganda and diplomacy and if he wants to make a significant landgrab later on the west will still be talking strategy as the Russian tanks are rolling through half a dozen european capitols. :o

A huge DDoS cyberattack is being reported by the Ukraine, targets were the defence ministry and two state banks. Scale and dimension as well as done damage so far are not known. The attacked networks were not accessible.

If True? Then they certainly WERE accessible at some point.

^^^ If Putin gives the order Ukraine can expect morally support from NATO and some weapon. NATO will under any circumstances have peace with Russia.

NATO is also divided when it comes to Ukraine. Putin know this.

This lead to next question-If Ukraine tomorrow, who will be next ?
The Swedish Island Gotland

I don't think he's going to touch former state, like Poland, Bulgaria-Not yet.

(NO Ukraine shall not become a NATO member)

Markus

Of course. I assume even Ukrainian banks offer online banking, and even the Ukrainian defence ministry may offer some public relation sites.



A DDoS attack, AFAIK, means that the attacked networks get flooded with more incoming mail requests than can be handled, so the whole system boggs down. Whether just that was the purpose or was just a smoke screen to cover data theft and sabotaging servers and databanks, I dont know.

No, the Northern theatre is too stable as if Russia currently could gain anything up there when stirring the pot, and the Swedes and Fins already are up in arms and have moved closer to joining NATO.

The South-Eastern region however promises tempting opportunities, still.

Government Sites and Banks do have what I call Front Doors for the average person to use.

Not a single place at THAT level can be dropped from Government/banking business needs by Ddos. There is ALWAYS a Back Door! Most back doors are VERY HARD sited. Most even not connected to the 'Net but dedicated HARD LINES.
So a Ddos attack is intended to panic the average public.

And it's not mail requests. It's a flooding of packet requests. I send a crap load of requests for response to overwhelm the answering Servers.
From one Computer it's a simple Dos attack. Ddos means MANY computers are doing the same thing.

Any good site can drop a Dos or Ddos attack with a few simple commands.
Even if they are bouncing their IP trail.