Just in from RFE/RL's News Desk:
The Ukrainian military says one serviceman was killed in fighting in the east over the past 24 hours, while separatists accused government forces of killing three civilians in the areas controlled by the pro-Russian rebels.
Ukrainian military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said at a briefing on June 23, "As a result of fighting in the past 24 hours, one of our soldiers has been killed and another 12 have been injured."
U.S. To Preposition Tanks, Artillery In Baltics, Eastern Europe
U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter says Washington will preposition tanks, artillery, and other military equipment in Eastern and Central Europe, in a move to reassure NATO allies concerned by Russia's intervention in Ukraine.
Carter, during a trip to Estonia's capital, Tallinn, said on June 23 that the Baltic states -- Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia -- as well as Bulgaria, Romania, and Poland have agreed to host elements of this equipment.
Some of the equipment would also be located in Germany.
A fact sheet provided by the U.S. military said the United States' prepositioning would include about 250 tanks, Bradley infantry fighting vehicles, and self-propelled howitzers.
The amount of equipment that would be temporarily stored in each country would be enough to supply either a company -- enough for about 150 soldiers -- or a battalion -- about 750 soldiers.
Officials say much of the equipment is already in Europe.
A Russian Defense Ministry official said stationing tanks and heavy weapons in NATO states on Russia's border would be the most aggressive U.S. act since the Cold War.
Based on reporting by Reuters and AP
Here is today's map of the security situation in eastern Ukraine, according to the National Security and Defense Council (CLICK TO ENLARGE):
Former RFE/RL President Jeffrey Gedmin has written an interesitng commentary piece for the Atlantic Council on the West's approach to Putin. Here's a taster:
Imagine Winston Churchill saying: "We've got to send Nazi Germany a clear signal. At the same time we have to recognize that the Germans do need their lebensraum." It's unthinkable.
But that's what the West keeps saying to Vladimir Putin's Russia. The most recent example is United Kingdom Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond telling the BBC: "We've got to send a clear signal to Russia that we will not allow them to transgress our red lines. At the same time we have to recognize that the Russians do have a sense of being surrounded and under attack, and we don't want to make unnecessary provocations."
Well. We refused Georgia and Ukraine NATO's Membership Action Plan (MAP) in 2008 so Moscow would not feel "under attack." We cancelled missile defense in the Czech Republic and Poland 2009 to calm Kremlin fears of "feeling surrounded." Back in 2002, we established a NATO-Russia Council, designed so that Russia and Alliance members could "work as equal partners on a wide spectrum of security issues of common interest."
What did this get us?
Ukraine is at war, Georgian territory is occupied, the Baltic nations are feeling threatened, the Visegrad nations are wobbly and divided, and NATO's southern flank is in disarray.
It's time we realize that western weakness is provocative. It's also time for a reset in our approach to the continent. This means that we set an agenda that advances our interests and values—rather than merely reacting to an agenda set by Putin.
Read the entire article here