Concerns over ‘Russia’s invasion’ of Ukraine are growing in European countries. Local experts keep talking about the country’s “increasing military buildup” along its western borders – every month, they post almost identical images from American satellites. The Western media are painting a vivid picture of Moscow’s plan to “attack from three directions,” while politicians refer to some intelligence reports that describe mysterious and hardly noticeable movements of 100,000 Russian troops.
War without War
“If Russia keeps getting away with what they’re doing in Ukraine and trying to alter borders, the entire international order will be in danger,” Evelyn Farkas, who served as US deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia during the Obama years, shared in her righteous indignation. She didn’t bother to explain what it is exactly that Russia is “doing.”
No need for explanations. Russian politicians and diplomats have pointed out time and time again that Moscow hasn’t violated anything and has no desire to invade anywhere, but Western countries got busy discussing the sanctions they would impose on Russia. Would targeting a few sectors be enough or should Russia be cut off from SWIFT immediately, just to be sure?
The fact that a war is imminent is not even questioned in the Western public discourse, the only uncertainty is over how exactly it will start and what the reaction should be. While consensus regarding sanctions hasn’t been reached yet, it seems that the Western countries have quietly agreed to prepare for a bloodbath. Americans and their NATO allies are evacuating their citizens from Ukraine, diplomats are being replaced with soldiers, 8,500 US troops are getting ready for deployment to Ukraine, while Kiev is receiving unprecedented amounts of military aid.