Despite the leftist media trying to push the Trump-and-Putin-are best-buds narrative, this would certainly seem to indicate otherwise ➡ (U.S. Ambassador Nikki) Haley slams Russian actions in Ukraine in first UN Security Council speech ~

“The dire situation in eastern Ukraine is one that demands clear and strong condemnation of Russian actions,” Haley said in her maiden remarks to the U.N. Security Council. “Until Russia and the separatists it supports respect Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, this crisis will continue.”
 
Haley warned Moscow that U.S. sanctions imposed after its annexation of Crimea will remain until the peninsula is returned to Ukraine. She added that it was “unfortunate” that she had to condemn Russia in her first Security Council appearance, saying “we do want to better our relations with Russia.” […]
 
Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine in 2014, and Russian-speaking separatists in Ukraine began protests that escalated into a war, with thousands killed. A deal two years ago known as the Minsk agreement was intended to end the conflict, but skirmishes have continued.

 
Our newly installed Secretary of State – although he’s supposedly on friendly business terms with the Russians – was also talking tough last week ~

BONN, Germany (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Thursday that Russia must abide by a 2015 deal aimed at ending fighting between Ukrainian forces and Russia-backed separatists as the Trump administration searches for ways to work cooperatively with Moscow […]
 
“As we search for new common ground, we expect Russia to honor its commitments to the Minsk agreements and work to deescalate the violence in the Ukraine,” Tillerson said after talks with Lavrov.

Fighting has intensified over the last several weeks, so it’s definitely encouraging to see the Trump administration taking this firm approach with Moscow. (Recall that Barack Obama really couldn’t be bothered with Vlad’s brazen actions a) Foreign correspondent Nolan Peterson who’s done extensive reporting from the 250-mile-long front lines in the Donbas, south-eastern Ukraine, describes the recent escalation ~

‘Humanitarian Disaster’: Thousands of Civilians Caught in the Crossfire as the War in Ukraine Escalates
KYIV, Ukraine — Artillery and rockets have been raining down on the front-line town of Avdiivka in eastern Ukraine since Sunday, leaving 16,000 civilians, including 2,000 children, without heat, electricity, or clean water as temperatures dipped to 20 degrees below zero Celsius, or about minus 4 Fahrenheit.
 
“[The] recent intensification of hostilities on the contact line in eastern Ukraine has had a very heavy impact on the local population,” the International Committee of the Red Cross said in a statement Tuesday. “The weather conditions make the negative impact even more severe.” […]
 
The conflict has killed more than 10,000 Ukrainians, and displaced about 1.7 million people, according to estimates by the U.N. and other humanitarian aid groups.

 
 
It’s been nearly three years since hostilities began, and there’s no end in sight. Europe’s only ongoing land war, as Peterson believes, it “retains the potential to escalate into a major, larger conflagration.”

Ukrainian officials say that a combined force of pro-Russian separatists and Russian regulars in eastern Ukraine is deliberately trying to derail the February 2015 cease-fire, called Minsk II. According to one line of thinking, the attacks are a ploy meant to bait Ukraine into a counteroffensive, which Russia can exploit for propaganda purposes.

Vladimir Putin is essentially a bully. He clearly has ambitions on reuniting the former Soviet Union. But his agressive strategy in Ukraine may be a miscalculation ~ Why Russian Military Aggression Has Backfired on Moscow. In addition to the involvement in Ukraine…

Since 2014, Russia has also ratcheted up military provocations against NATO forces across Eastern Europe.
 
Russian warplanes have made provocative flybys of NATO ships and aircraft. And Moscow has deployed new military hardware to its Kaliningrad exclave, a territory nestled between the Baltic countries and Poland, which are all NATO members.

 
By taking such offensive actions Putin may have overplayed his hand ~

“Russia’s aggression against its neighbors has changed the threat perception of many NATO members, many of whom have finally taken steps to increase defense spending,” said Daniel Kochis, policy analyst in European affairs at The Heritage Foundation. “This is something that decades of haranguing by multiple U.S. administrations has failed to do.”
 
Anticipating a potential war with Russia, former Soviet and Warsaw Pact countries have undertaken a crash course military buildup […]
 
Russian aggression has spurred NATO to rearm and adopt a more aggressive posture toward Moscow.
 
The Western military alliance (originally conceived to oppose the Soviet Union) has collectively pledged to boost military spending while it follows through on plans to deploy its forces eastward toward Russia’s borders in ways unseen since the Cold War.

 
For the sake of the embattled Ukrainians – and the peace in eastern Europe – let’s hope the U.S. and other freedom-supporting NATO members continue to stand up to Putin’s thuggish tactics.
 
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Related:
Meanwhile, in another part of the world… biggest military build-up since the Cold War as Putin practices for nuclear war(?) (10-26-16)

Meanwhile, in another part of the world… …The Ukraine conflict (3-18-16)

Is it “treason”yet? ~ (March 2014) Remember right after Russia first sparked the Ukrainian hostilities? We gave them used military equipment! ~

The Obama administration’s planned supply to the Russian Federation is a grave mistake given the recent invasion of Ukraine launched by Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin, the legislators point out. “It is difficult to imagine a worse time to provide military-grade technology employed by the U.S. Marine Corps, Army, and Special Operations Forces to Russia than when it has illegally invaded Ukraine and is violating the intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty,” the letter to (Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, who oversees the agency carrying out the “irresponsible military equipment transfers” to Russia.) says. “To make matters worse, it is our understanding from the budget documents that the Department has been, and continues to propose, providing this technology to Russia free-of-charge.”