Putin's war with Ukraine, and the 2016 NATO summit in Warsaw.

On Saturday, 7th May, I wrote that,

"Putin,  thanks to his invasion and annexation of Ukrainian Crimea, and his war with Ukraine in the Donbas, has woken the sleeping giant of NATO, against which he is now railing." (Blog :Saturday, 7 May 2016)

 This is best illustrated at the current EU-NATO Signing Ceremony in Warsaw (08 JUL 2016), between the the President of the European Council, Donald Tusk, the President of the European Commission, Jean Claude Junker, and the Secretary General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Jens Stoltenberg.

It is further illustrated by the Introductory remarks of NATO Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg, who, towards the end of his opening speech at the NATO Summit in Warsaw (July 7-9, 2016), specifically singled out the war between Putin's Russia and Ukraine as a prime example of the 'hybrid' warfare that NATO now has to defend itself against.

Added to which, as reported by Putin's global propaganda TV network, RT,

"British instructors will complete the training of 4,000 Ukrainian military personnel by March 2017, UK Secretary of State for Foreign & Commonwealth Affairs Philip Hammond (left) told journalists on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Warsaw.

"We have a very active cooperation with Ukraine. The UK will train 4,000 Ukrainian servicemen until March 2017," Hammond said.
...
"This underlines the commitment of the UK to the issue of sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of Ukraine and our other Eastern European partners. This is another clear sign thet we strongly support Ukraine in times of aggression," he said at that time, as quoted by the Ukrainian news agency Ukrinform." (RT : 8 July, 2016) (my emphasis).

As also reported by Brian Bonner (right),

" ... Russia's war against Ukraine - in its third year - and its illegal military invasion and annexation of the Crimean peninsula - are driving the political-military alliance's priorities ...( KyivPost : Jul. 9, 2016) (my emphasis)

We therefore have to ask ourselves why, a day before this NATO Summit in Warsaw, Putin suddenly decides to call US President Obama, ostensibly to discuss the conflicts in Ukraine, Syria, and Nagorno Karabakh.

Whilst President Obama emphasised that the Minsk2 protocols have to be FULLY implemented Putin, on the other hand, trotted out his usual demand that,

"Regarding Ukraine, Putin argued that [the Ukrainian] government needs to follow the 2015 Minsk peace deal by launching a dialogue with rebels, granting a special status to rebel regions and preparing local elections there." (ABC News (The Associated Press MOSCOW): Jul 6, 2016)

Yet NOWHERE in the Minsk2 protocols does it specify that Ukrainian President Poroshenko should first launch a dialogue with Putin's rebel proxies in the Donbas BEFORE the withdrawal of Putin's near 10,000 Russian soldiers, removal of all Russian military armaments from the Donbas, the restoring of Ukrainian control over the border between Russia and Ukraine, and effective OSCE monitoring of the pullout of Putin's soldiers.  (Wikipedia)

As reported in an interview of Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze, Deputy PM of Ukraine, by CNBC, the border situation is escalating, with an increase in deaths of Ukrainian soldiers, thanks to Putin continuing to supply his Russian soldiers and rebel proxies in the Donbas with lethal armaments.

There could, however, be another reason for Putin's sudden call to Obama. And it may have to do with the fact that,

"In an effort to reassure Georgia and Ukraine the United States is committed to their security, America's top diplomat is visiting the European nations as Russia continues to assert itself in the region.

...

Kerry will discuss security matters with Ukrainian officials in Kyiv before joining U.S. President Barack Obama in Poland Friday for a summit of NATO leaders." (VoA : July 06, 2016) (my emphasis) (cf. also: Reuters : 7 July, 2016)

The fact that NATO's eye has not been taken off the Ukrainian war with Putin's Russia has led to the usual diatribe against NATO emanating from Putin's mouthpiece, Dmitry Peskov (left).

"The Kremlin has hit back at a decision by NATO to station several thousand troops in Baltic countries and Eastern Europe, amid rising tensions between Europe and Russia, as "anti-Russian hysteria."

...

"If one needs badly to look for an enemy image so that [one can] promote anti-Russian, so to say, hysteria, and then, with this emotional background, to deploy more and more air force units, ground troop units, getting them closer to Russian borders, then one can hardly find any common ground for cooperation," he was quoted by Russia's Itar Tass news agency as saying. " (Holly Ellyatt : CNBC : 8 July, 2016) (my emphasis)

Peskov's blind spot about the deaths that Putin and his Russian soldiers and rebel proxies have caused in Ukraine signifies the contempt with which Putin and his Kremlin siloviki regard such tragedies. 

Let us also recall the contempt of Putin for Russian citizens when his FSB orchestrated the Moscow apartment bombings in 1999 that led to to the deaths of 293 Russian citizens. (Wikipedia)

Putin should now not complain if the NATO giant that he has awoken because of his invasion of, and annexation of, Crimea, and his continued military support for his rebel proxies and Russian soldiers in the Donbas, is now beginning to stir.

(to be continued)