Satellite images reveal new Russian military base in Crimea filled with thousands of tanks and troops as Putin masses 150,000 troops on border with Ukraine
- Satellite images have revealed Russian military camp near Kachyk Lake, on south coast of Crimean peninsula
- Images show thousands of vehicles lined up inside fenced-off pens alongside infantry tents arranged in rows
- Camp has appeared over the course of the last month, and is the first new camp to be pictured in Crimea
- Ukraine believes there are now more than 150,000 Russian troops on the border, the largest force assembled by Moscow since it annexed Crimea in 2014
Russia has massed over 150,000 troops along the Ukrainian border and in the annexed Crimean peninsula in a new military camp revealed by satellite images.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell confirmed the news on Monday after talks involving Ukraine's foreign ministry and said: 'It is the highest Russian military deployment at Ukrainian borders ever'.
He warned: 'The risk of further escalation, it's evident.'
The camp, located next to Kachyk Lake on the south coast of Crimea, appeared over the course of a month to house Russian soldiers and vehicles that Russian President Vladimir Putin has been ferrying to the region on the back of trains and trucks.
Images taken by PlanetLabs satellites on April 13 show at least 1,000 vehicles on site, lined up in fenced-off areas opposite infantry tents. Only a fraction of that force was visible in another image taken a month earlier on March 15.
A secondary sub-camp is also visible around a mile to the west of the main camp, on the shores of Kachyk Lake. That camp primarily consists of vehicles in fenced-off pens, with a handful of infantry tents visible.
While Ukraine has previously warned that as many as 40,000 new Russian troops have been stationed in Crimea, in addition to another 40,000 on the mainland, it is the first time that a camp housing the force has been pictured.
Tensions have spiralled over the build-up of Russian troops around its southwestern neighbour as an intensification of clashes with Moscow-backed separatists has fuelled fears of a return to widespread fighting in Ukraine.
Moscow's military says it is conducting exercises along its frontier in response to moves by Western military alliance NATO that 'threaten Russia'.
Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said last week that 'two armies and three airborne units were successfully deployed' to the Russia's western border and that the drills would be over 'within two weeks'.
Ukraine is pushing the West for more practical support as it looks to deter any further aggression from Moscow.
Kiev's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba pressed the EU to prepare 'a new set of sectoral sanctions' against Russia in talks with his counterparts from the 27-nation bloc on Monday.
But Borrell said that there were currently no further sanctions being proposed or under consideration.
It comes after more satellite images revealed another camp has been built near the Russian city of Voronezh, around 500miles north of the new camp and 150miles from the Ukrainian border.
Satellite images of the Voronezh camp, first published 10 days ago, confirm it is arranged in a similar fashion - with vehicles including mobile missile launchers and armoured personnel carriers lined up inside pens.
Infantry tents, presumably used by units operating the vehicles, can then be seen positioned in looser formations just a short distance from the vehicles.
Kiev believes there are now more than 80,000 Russian troops in the region - possibly as many as 115,000 - a force larger than at any time since Putin gave the order to annex Crimea in 2014.
That has raised fears they could actually be used for an invasion of eastern Ukraine, particularly the Donbas region where Russian-backed rebel groups are involved in a years-long conflict with Kiev's forces.
UK defence chiefs have also confirmed that six Royal Air Force Typhoon super-jets will fly to eastern Europe as part of another pre-planned mission.
The Typhoons will be supported by troops from the RAF's No1 Expeditionary Logistics Squadron and No2 Mechanical Transport Squadron. They are deploying from bases in the UK this week and will police the skies around the Black Sea.
A ministry spokesman told the Sunday Times that the UK government was working closely with Ukraine to monitor the situation and continued to call on Russia to de-escalate.
Security experts now fear Russia is planning to reoccupy eastern Ukraine on the pretence of protecting native Russian speakers who live there.
NATO has expressed serious concern over the build-up of forces on the border, while Pope Francis on Sunday called for a lowering of tensions in eastern Ukraine and expressed anxiety over a military buildup.
'Please! I strongly hope that an increase in tension can be avoided. On the contrary, there is a need for gestures that can promote reciprocal trust and foster reconciliation and peace, both so necessary and so desired.'
On Monday, Russian defence chiefs released videos of aerial strike training on a 'mock enemy'.
In the footage, a MiG-31BM high-altitude fighter is seen firing an air-to-air missile and pilots practise carrying out air combat, interception and striking air targets at speeds of 1,550mph, and an altitude of 12.5 miles.
I clearly stated on Paul Preston’s show, later that same morning that there was clearly smoke to this fire regarding the Marine Corps and Biden. However, I was not entirely confident in the details of the report. I am now!
Four hours later, both Paul Preston and myself are convinced from different sources that this event did indeed take place. Additional facts have come to light as well.
United States Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM) has issued a Posture Review pointing out that an adversary may choose to use NUCLEAR WEAPONS first rather than wait until they are losing a war.
Their precise language "Posture Statement Preview: The spectrum of conflict today is neither linear nor predictable. We must account for the possibility of conflict leading to conditions which could very rapidly drive an adversary to consider nuclear use as their least bad option."
When USSTRATCOM puts out something like they just put out, its time to be paying attention.
In the eyes of NATO, any enemy (including Russia) have no chance of winning a war.
It's just how they see it.
Now, an enemy that is forced to fight NATO, or is willing to attack NATO unprovoked (reasons are irrelevant to the discussion) have a number of options, ranging from good to bad.
But the "good" or the "bad" is subjective, and depends on who is defining what is "good" and "bad."
For instance, in this case, if Russia launches a surprise massive nuclear attack against U.S. silos, in order to destroy as many nukes as they can, from the point of view of Russia, this is a "good" option, militarily speaking.
In the eyes of U.S. Strategic Command, such an attack would be "bad" . . . for Russia...but the LEAST bad.
The U.S. Strategic Command assumes that Russia will not use nukes in the initial phase of the war, but rather AFTER the war starts, and Russia is losing.
This is the military doctrine of NATO, which assumes (totally wrong) that a nuclear war will start AFTER a conventional war that leads to conditions (read : losing) for one side to use nuclear strikes as a hail Mary.
So, in a sense, if Russia and Ukraine start a war, NATO gets involved (U.S. being the main actor), Russia will not be able to conventionally compete against NATO forces, so Russia might choose to use nukes.
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Expecting the rapture in a few days, Followed by financial collapse, multiple wars including an attack on the US and the emergence of AC to preside over the upcoming Swiss WEF and confirm the covenant.
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