{"id":34865,"date":"2022-02-10T10:59:26","date_gmt":"2022-02-10T18:59:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cww7news.com\/?p=34865"},"modified":"2022-02-10T10:59:27","modified_gmt":"2022-02-10T18:59:27","slug":"world-on-the-brink-violent-russian-war-games-sparks-imminent-ukraine-invasion-fears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cww7news.com\/world-on-the-brink-violent-russian-war-games-sparks-imminent-ukraine-invasion-fears\/","title":{"rendered":"World on the brink: ‘Violent’ Russian war games sparks imminent Ukraine invasion fears"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Aimed at practicing \u201crepelling external aggression\u201d, Moscow and Minsk have not disclosed how many troops are participating in the 10-day war games. However, the US and NATO estimate Russia has sent around 30,000 combat troops with weaponry and other military equipment to the former Soviet neighbor . <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tensions are reaching breaking point as Russia has amassed more than 100,000 troops around the Ukrainian border, raising strong suspicions that they intend a major military incursion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Russian Defence Ministry Press Service has today released footage showing tank and anti-aircraft systems rolling across heavy snow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some of the drills involve live fire, including anti-tank missiles and armoured infantry vehicles apparently shooting at targets. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Boris Johnson said at a news conference today: \u201cThis is probably the most dangerous moment, I would say, in the course of the next few days, in what is the biggest security crisis that Europe has faced for decades, and we’ve got to get it right.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was joined by Nato Secretary General Jens Soltenberg, who added: \u201cThis is a dangerous moment for European security. The number of Russian forces is going up. The warning time for a possible attack is going down. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We are closely monitoring Russia’s deployment in Belarus, which is the biggest since the end of the Cold War.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is understood the exercise will end on February 20.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, a recent US intelligence estimate, made last week, said Russia would have sufficient force for a full-scale invasion by February 15.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking to France Inter radio, French foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian described the exercises as a \u201cvery violent gesture that concerns us\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Russian and Belarusian military leaders said in a joint statement: \u201cThe purpose of the exercise is to work on methods to stop and repel external aggression within the framework of a defensive operation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The exercise has been dubbed Union-Courage 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Volodymyr Zelensky, president of Ukraine, described the drills as \u201cpsychological pressure.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added, however, that Ukraine is used to the experience, saying: \u201cThe risks are there and have been there since 2014. The issue is the degree of these risks, and how we respond to them.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The drills come during a period of intense diplomacy which has seen Foreign Secretary Liz Truss travelling to Moscow to meet her Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking after his talks with Ms Truss, Mr Lavrov said he could not understand British anxiety over the drills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said: “Some time soon, Western nations will find out the Russian-Belarusian drills wrapped up and that Russian troops came back to the Russian territory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“They will then make a noise about the West forcing Russia over to de-escalate while it will be like selling air: Everyone knows well that Russian troops always come back to their bases at the end of all drills.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

He added that it was the sovereign right of any government to determine the length of military drills it chooses to hold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Russia has also sent six warship through the Bosphorus for naval drills on the Black Sea and the neighbouring Sea of Azov.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kyiv denounced their presence as “unprecedented” attempt to cut off Ukraine for both seas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Weapons seen being set up include a D-30 Howitzer – a Soviet field gun – as well as combat crews on a S-400 air defence system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Russian-made S-400 is one of its most advanced anti-aircraft weapons, and can be seen in the footage driving along an icy, snow-covered road before forming a line and readying their payload.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Aimed at practicing \u201crepelling external aggression\u201d, Moscow and Minsk have not disclosed how many troops are participating in the 10-day war games. However, the US and NATO estimate Russia has sent around 30,000 combat troops with weaponry and other military equipment to the former Soviet neighbor . Tensions are reaching breaking point as Russia has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":754,"featured_media":25934,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[269],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cww7news.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/putin777773-e1636405115325.png?fit=700%2C420&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cww7news.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34865"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cww7news.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cww7news.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cww7news.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/754"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cww7news.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34865"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cww7news.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34865\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34868,"href":"https:\/\/cww7news.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34865\/revisions\/34868"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cww7news.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cww7news.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cww7news.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cww7news.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}