Putin, You are Beginning to Bore Me

NATO has confirmed the movement of large amounts of Russian troops and military equipment into eastern Ukraine. This is seen as provocative by many world leaders. Russia's overt military buildup threatens the Sept 5th ceasefire. The international security establishment is worried Russia's mobilization will reignite "full-scale fighting in the region."  I don't understand why NATO, and the media, is still acting as if the ceasefire is holding. As of this article's publication, the Ukrainian military had initiated artillery bombardment of Donetsk. Artillery bombardment is the literal opposite of a ceasefire. The article claims that "hundreds of people" have been killed since the imposition of the so-called ceasefire. It seems as though people invested in the success of a ceasefire are just putting off having to admit their failure.

Every party involved, excluding those actually doing the killing, seems to just be going through the diplomatic motions. Russian military officials still insist that Russian troops are not fighting, in spite of the fact that these soldiers are routinely photographed in proximity to military equipment that could only have come directly from the Russian arsenal. The movement of short-range ballistic missiles and complex air defense systems into Ukraine negates any shred of possible deniability the Russians may have thought they still had.

The lack of any concerted global response fills me with profound ire. Russia has been in the process of invading Ukraine for months. Putin has, thus far, invaded at a slow enough pace for NATO to plausibly pretend it isn't an invasion. This overt deployment of heavy military equipment breaks all pretense. NATO, now, has no choice but to treat it as an invasion. The problem for the Ukrainians is: the rest of the world does not have the political will to engage in a full-scale, WWII style, great power conflict right now. Putin knows this, and will take advantage of global war-weariness to acquire as much territory and power as he can before the global community decides it is worth their collective while to intervene.

It is more than a little cliché to compare one's enemy to Hitler. In this case, however, the comparison is not made merely for the sake of rhetorical flourish. Putin's strategy in the Ukraine, and the world's reaction to it, is frighteningly similar to Hitler's prewar annexation of the Sudetenland.