Putin now has to tread very very carefully.

In my blog entry of 3rd January 2018 I wrote that,

"Can it therefore be a co-incidence that just yesterday (2nd Jan., 2018),

"Ukrainian positions outside the village of Hnutove in the Mariupol sector came under fire from 82mm mortars, cannons of infantry fighting vehicles, grenade launchers, machine guns, and small arms. 

In addition, the enemy resorted to the entire range of infantry weapons to attack the defensive fortifications of the ATO forces around the village of Vodiane several times. In total, there were six attacks on the Ukrainian army in the past day." (UNIAN : 03 January 2018) (my emphasis)

Like Trump, who had no other option but to supply Ukraine with those deadly Javelin anti-tank missiles, and who now sees the noose of impeachment descending around his neck, Putin and his generals are now staring into the abyss of being militarily repulsed from gaining their much coveted landbridge into annexed Ukrainian Crimea."

And yesterday, the Washington Post (AP) reports that,

"Ukraine’s parliament on Thursday passed a bill that aims to reintegrate the eastern territories currently controlled by Russia-backed separatists, and goes as far as to declare support for taking them back by military force if necessary.

The bill describes the areas in Ukraine’s Donetsk and Luhansk regions as “temporarily occupied” by “aggressor country” Russia. President Petro Poroshenko welcomed the new bill, saying it would help restore control of the east by “political and diplomatic means.” (Washington POst (AP) : 18 Jan., 2018) (my emphasis)

 

The response of Putin to the passing of this Ukrainian Bill, as reported by The Independent, was to claim that,

"The Russian foreign ministry sees Ukraine's efforts to denounce Moscow as an "aggressor country" as evidence that it is preparing for a "new war", according to Russian media." (The Independent: Thursday 18 January 2018) (my emphasis)

Similarly, as reported by RFERL,

"The Russian Foreign Ministry later said in a statement, "You cannot call this anything but preparation for a new war," and warned that the bill "risked a dangerous escalation in Ukraine with unpredictable consequences for world peace and security." (RFERL : 18 January, 2018) (my emphasis)
 
What is significant about the passing of this bill is that,

"Arseniy Yatseniuk, whose party forms the backbone of Ukraine’s ruling coalition with Mr Poroshenko’s political bloc, said the legislation also sets a legal framework to “remove the Russian army from Ukrainian territory” through a peacekeeping force sanctioned by the UN." (Roman Olearchyk : Financial Times : 18 January, 2018) (my emphasis)

This bill puts the final nail in the coffin of Putin's Minsk2 proposals.

Putin now wants a "new war" with Ukraine, and is using an invented story about the killing of two Russian soldiers in the Ukrainian Crimea that he annexed in 2014, as a pretext to prevent the very UN peacekeeping force that he, himself, originally suggested, from entering the Donbas. (cf. also Al Jazeera video)

Putin, however, now has to tread rather carefully. 

Those "little Green Men" of his that invaded, and then occupied, Ukrainian Crimea without a drop of blood being shed will now have to face an advesary that not only is battle hardened but, more importantly, now has the military capability to push back forcefully against any ground forces that Putin may care to throw at them.

Putin now has to factor publicly exposed Russian casualties into any military adventure he may venture to take against the battle-hardened Ukrainian forces.

As Prime Minister in October 1999, Putin set in motion the second Chechen war that, in the words of Anna Politkovskaya (left) "... brutalised both Chechen fighters and conscript soldiers in the federal army, and created hell for the civilians caught between them..." (Wikipedia).   

And in the wake of his brutality in Chechnya, Putin became President of Russia.

But will the Russian people continue to shower Putin with plaudits as the body bags of Russian soldiers from a Ukrainian war front begin to mount?

(to be continued)