Ukraine: military (Aug '14 to mid-June '15) closed

[BrentWilliams]

IMO Putin is not cutting his losses---he is actually upping the efforts if the YouTube video is correct where the new leader of the Donetsk stated he is anticipating receiving 1200 new fighters that were trained the last four months in Moscow and he is awaiting 120 APs and 30 tanks---the fighting on the UA side has slowed down and they have noticed an improved fighting abilities of the separatists.

By shifting out those that were not toeing the line makes it now easier to have a unified front.

Notice he is not de-escalating.

Putin totally miscalculated the western reactions from the beginning--he assumed they would fold as they did in the Georgian war and go back to business as usual---instead he is hit with sanctions that are actually biting now harder and he is isolated thoroughly and might not be invited to the G20 which is a prestige loss.

Latest affect of the sanction---the largest Russian oil company is asking the Russian government for a 45B USD bailout since they had built a number of business deals built on short term USD loans which they now cannot get.

Putin has no exit plan and did not take the exits that were being offered by the west as he thought his mercenaries would be holding their own---now they are losing and he cannot afford to lose face---losing face is a defeat and he does not want to be considered a loser against the west.

I agree. He is upping the support significantly . However, at this point it appears Ukraine is still making progress. It was just reported they control the police station in Luhansk.

[OUTLAW 09]

I agree. He is upping the support significantly . However, at this point it appears Ukraine is still making progress. It was just reported they control the police station in Luhansk.

BW---noticed about a hour ago via Interfax press release Moscow is denying that they provided 1200 Russian trained mercenaries for the fight as well as 120 APCs and 30 tanks.

Total embarrassment for Moscow when they were to be meeting in Berlin---and after months of stating no we are not providing support.

Putin was directly challenged by Merkel in a call to him to finally come clean and admit he is supporting them and then to finally stop it.

Seems like the swap out of the separatist leader in the Donetsk did not get his messaging correctly stated and or agreed to with Moscow.