On Monday, Sept. 27th the Russian government made a chilling announcement warning the Biden-Harris regime of crossing President Vladimir Putin’s “red lines”. The former KGB strong-man made it clear that any expansion of NATO military infrastructure in Ukraine would not be acceptable, and that they are working with neighboring Belarus under authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko.
According to The Hill,
“The Kremlin said that its joint actions with Belarus would “ensure the security of the two of our states,” adding that Putin “repeatedly,” said NATO infrastructure in Ukraine “would cross those red lines that he has spoken about before,” according to Reuters.”
Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian News Agency TASS,
“The topic of the potential expansion of NATO’s military infrastructure into Ukraine has been repeatedly mentioned by President Putin … President Putin has said that it is beyond the same red lines he has spoken about before.”
According to Russian State media Pravda, Vladimir Putin said that
“[I]f foreign powers “burn bridges” with Russia, his country’s response “will be asymmetric, rapid and tough.” “I hope that no one will think of crossing the ‘ red border ‘ against Russia . And we will determine where it will take place in each case,”
Belorussian President Alexander Lukashenko true to form established himself as in lockstep with Putin,
“Ukraine-related issues require special attention. You can see that NATO troops are being dragged there. The United States is establishing bases in Ukraine. Clearly, we need to respond to that,” Lukashenko said to a Russian news agency BelTA, according to Tass.
“Unfortunately, the Ukrainian authorities don’t care a bit about their own people and they don’t hear our concerns,” Lukashenko also said.
Pushback Against Putin From Ukrainian Foreign Ministry
Those very same ” Ukrainian authorities” that Lukashenko spoke of didn’t find his or Putin’s rhetoric very amusing though and were quick to remind them that Putin’s “red lines” cannot reach beyond Russia’s own borders.
Foreign Minister of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba tweeted,
“Putin’s “red lines” are limited to the territory of the Russian Federation. From our side of the Russian-Ukrainian border, we will figure out for ourselves what to do in the interests of the Ukrainian people and the security of Ukraine and Europe.”
NATA and Ukrainian military forces and Russian and Belorussian forces have been conducting what amounts to ‘dueling drills’ on either side of the border as the Russian show of force continues to unnerve the Ukrainian people, still struggling against separatists in the Donbas and Luhansk regions, long supplied by and aligned with a sympathetic Moscow and no one in the pivotal Eastern European nation has forgotten that Putin’s forces boldly strode into the Crimean peninsula and seized it along with the port city of Sevastapol which the United States under our last Democrat President Barack Obama, the European Union, and NATO did nothing to stop them. Ukraine to this day is not a member of the EU or NATO but has flirted with both in the past. Russia is committed to not allowing either to happen.
