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On April 23rd, the US and NATO’s biggest concern in regard to Ukraine is dissolving.
The troops from the Russian Southern and Western military districts began returning to their permanent positions of deployment.
A day earlier, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu arrived in Crimea, where a large-scale exercise was taking place.
It involved more than 10 thousand servicemen; 1,200 units of weapons and military equipment of the Southern Military District, the Black Sea Fleet, the Caspian Flotilla and Airborne Forces.
Shoigu said that every aspect of the defense of the region had been tested, including coastal and air defense systems.
He claimed that the purposes of his sudden inspections were satisfactory, and the concentration of forces needed no longer remain.
In the EU, the deployment of Russian troops near the border with Ukraine was called “the most ambitious in history.”
According to the European Union’s foreign policy service, Russia has deployed 100,000 troops there.
The Russian Ministry of Defense explained the concentration of troops in the Southern Military District with exercises.
According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, the Ukrainian and Western media are blowing the issue of Russian military activity near the border with Ukraine out of proportion.
The United States also showed its unwillingness to start a large-scale war when it stopped the deployment of its warships to the Black Sea.
Former Russian President and Deputy Chairman of the Security Council Dmitry Medvedev said that the United States has chosen a dual approach to relations with Russia.
The new tactic of the Biden Administration is to signal the need for dialogue with one hand and increase pressure with the other.
Both Washington and Moscow showed that an open war is not in the interest of either party.
Kiev is, thus, left on its own, attempting to push its own aggressive course of action.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Ukraine didn’t want war, but it was ready for it.
He continuously uses militaristic rhetoric, saying that Kiev would stand until the last man in a war with Russia, and meanwhile, Zelensky is failing at his attempt at diplomacy.
He tried to play tough and invited Russian President Vladimir Putin to negotiations in Eastern Ukraine.
In response, Putin said that the Ukrainian leader should speak to the self-proclaimed republics in the region.
He was, however, always welcome to visit Moscow and talk with the Russian leader for whatever he wishes.
Ukrainian President Zelensky is now between a rock and a hard place.
Kiev has already had to pay for a new redeployment of its troops on the Eastern frontlines, while the country’s economy is battered.
Zelensky also may seek an escalation to get political mileage from the situation and to distract the population from numerous internal problems, including the disastrous spread of COVID-19.
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Featured image: NATO soldiers during a parade to mark Independence Day in Kiev © Sputnik / Mykhailo Markiv
