How Hot is Ukraine Gonna Get?

[panzermartin]

I really don't get ISIS, (if this attack is ISIS). They didn't make a sound with the Gaza bloodshed , but they now "fight for Islam" against russian  rockers, in timing that makes no sense whatsoever from their perspective but makes absolute sense in the Ukrainian matter. 

[Battlefront.com]

22 minutes ago, The_Capt said:

But this is exactly what you accuse western think of, western thinking.  We responded with unity across political lines to a brutal and highly visible attack.  The Russia, that you yourself describe, is not going to react with the exact same mindset.

Oh, it's far worse than that.  Moscow is hated throughout Russia as being a bunch of spoiled rotten no-goods.  The regions that have been putting forward volunteers have already noted that they are doing all the heavy lifting in this war.  So I'd posit that the reaction of the everyday Russian is more likely to be "serves them right for not doing more" rather than "OMG!  I need to sign up to fight to protect Muscovites!"

At best, one could argue that a false flag attack was aimed at Moscow to get Muscovites to sign up or put up with a pending mobilization.  Moscow is a massive pool of largely untapped manpower that has, by every single last account by everybody, largely sitting by and not joining the war anywhere near the same percentage as the rural areas. 

So, yes, it would make some sense to direct a false flag attack on Moscow for the local audience, but not the entire country.  However, a false flag attack would only make sense if someone thought it would work AND that this was the way to do it.  Otherwise all it would do is harm the regime and the war.

Let's also not forget that there's this thing called "history" we can look at for information.  I know, it's controversial to look backwards to see forwards, but hey... I paid for the ability to do this (history degree) so I'm a bit biased

There have been two extremely large scale mass murder terrorist attacks in Russia:

1. 2002 Moscow theater slaughter: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscow_theater_hostage_crisis
2. 2004 Beslan school slaughter:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beslan_school_siege

Despite all the conspiracy theories (there always are some) these were genuine domestic terrorist attacks coming out of the Caucuses.  The attack we just saw was akin to these two, except no hostage taking.  So ask yourself... why would Putin order a false flag operation that looks nearly identical to two widely known domestic terrorist attacks from the Caucuses if his intention was to inflame people to fight in Ukraine?  Why not (as someone just suggested) have a "Ukrainian drone" smash into a football match or a school or something similar?

Look, everybody here knows that I have an extremely low opinion of Russian competency.  Right?  Well, it is my opinion that if this was a false flag attack then I'd have to lower the bar of Russian intelligence even further.  Like, rip up floor boards so I can lower the bar into my basement.  I'm not prepared to do that, not even for Putin's crew, without some solid evidence.

Sometimes things, even in Russia, are as they seem.  This has all the hallmarks of a domestic terrorist attack, with or without a foreign component, and not a false flag operation.

Steve

[kraze]

1 hour ago, billbindc said:

It is both an extraordinarily bad idea to assume that the regime's incompetence is always planned or that anyone in Russia is going to buy their bull****. Siloviks aren't magic.

There's nothing incompetent about it. That putin was going to order this wasn't a secret, in fact that's literally what western security services told everyone. Not to mention at this point it's a tradition in russia - whenever the need to sell any war (harder) in Russia arises - buildings, schools and subway stations immediately start getting blown up, often right after the Tsar gets re-elected.

Not to mention that "siloviks" who aren't "magic" couldn't catch themselves the terrorists at the scene of the crime, but caught them with ease just a few hours later at the Ukrainian border. Because, of course, where else? Doesn't look like "incompetence" to me.

[kimbosbread]

3 minutes ago, Battlefront.com said:

There have been two extremely large scale mass murder terrorist attacks in Russia:

1. 2002 Moscow theater slaughter: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscow_theater_hostage_crisis
2. 2004 Beslan school slaughter:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beslan_school_siege

Moscow airport and metro bombings a decade or two ago weren’t as big, but still killed a lot of people (almost 40 each incident).

[Battlefront.com]

2 minutes ago, panzermartin said:

I really don't get ISIS, (if this attack is ISIS). They didn't make a sound with the Gaza bloodshed , but they now "fight for Islam" against russian  rockers, in timing that makes no sense whatsoever from their perspective but makes absolute sense in the Ukrainian matter. 

No, it makes ABSOLUTELY NO SENSE that this was connected to Ukraine.  This is how dumb conspiracy theories get started.  Please stop contributing to it.

As with other totally lazy and counter factual theories, yours misses the fact that the world is rather complicated.  Why would ISIS be doing something in Russia and not Gaza?  Some possibilities:

1. ISIS has nothing to do with this and is just trying to take credit to make itself seem relevant again.
2. A local group came up with the idea and someone within that group has ties to ISIS, so he made a phone call and ISIS said "that sounds great!  We've got some money and a planning guy we can send your way, as long as we get to take credit for it".
3. ISIS has tried, or is trying, to do something within Israel but it's really difficult to do because a) ISIS has absolutely no history of being organized enough to do squat against Israel and b) Israel's security services, while not perfect, are pretty good.
4. ISIS has been planning this attack for more than a year, therefore it was well in motion before Gaza happened.  What do you think ISIS would do, CANCEL the attack on Moscow because they need to do something in Gaza?  Hardly.

Look, those are 4 logical and plausible explanations as to why this is ISIS.  They weren't difficult to come up with, but if you don't even try to look you won't see even the most obvious things staring you in the face.

Steve

[MOS:96B2P]

2 hours ago, Beleg85 said:

Btw.:

 

 

2 hours ago, FancyCat said:

I went and looked up some of the place names of the location, they all resemble government offices of quite mundane nature.

I would not read to much into a police / military type building being located close to the scene of the attack.  If it was a police / military building that had a Quick Reaction Force (QRF) standing by that would matter.  Then it might be interesting to speculate about said QRFs response or lack of response. 

However many police / military type buildings serve as administrative, logistic, training and communication centers.  Maybe even interrogation and lock-up facilities.  Depending on the type of building (even one associated with "SOF") and the time of night it is very possible there were only a few people present or maybe just a night janitor. 

Of course if we learn the building was the staging area for a QRF assigned to this civilian event then the building has some relevance.  Very possible this building, at this time of night, did not contain first responders and played no role at all. 

[Battlefront.com]

5 minutes ago, kraze said:

There's nothing incompetent about it. That putin was going to order this wasn't a secret, in fact that's literally what western security services told everyone. Not to mention at this point it's a tradition in russia - whenever the need to sell any war (harder) in Russia arises - buildings, schools and subway stations immediately start getting blown up, often right after the Tsar gets re-elected.

Not to mention that "siloviks" who aren't "magic" couldn't catch themselves the terrorists at the scene of the crime, but caught them with ease just a few hours later at the Ukrainian border. Because, of course, where else? Doesn't look like "incompetence" to me.

This is getting dumber by the post.

Then why not have a "Ukrainian" drone smash into the very same theater?  Why not have a bunch of Russian FSB agents running around screaming "Slava Ukraini!" as they shot innocent people?  Why immediately blame Caucasians for the attack, and then try to establish a connection to Kyiv that has absolutely no precedence for existing?

My god... I feel like the intelligence level in this thread just dropped off a cliff.

Steve

[kraze]

5 hours ago, Holien said:

That Russia is suffering a shortage of fast response armed units as they have been busy elsewhere.

Nah. Not the throne city. A capital of the empire is very well protected, especially after the "one day coup" last year.
Again this is not the first time. Putin blew up houses in Ryazan when he got first elected to justify invasion of Ichkeriya, FSB gassing everybody during Nord Ost with a hundred dead was there to excuse mass civilian murder in Ichkeriya, then he blew up a school in Beslan to justify the permanent "counter terrorist operation" there and in Dagestan that lasts for 20 years now. In 2011 Putin blew up Domodedovo airport to justify invading Syria and so on so forth.

It's like such a classic move at this point - I don't even.

[billbindc]

7 minutes ago, kraze said:

There's nothing incompetent about it. That putin was going to order this wasn't a secret, in fact that's literally what western security services told everyone. Not to mention at this point it's a tradition in russia - whenever the need to sell any war (harder) in Russia arises - buildings, schools and subway stations immediately start getting blown up, often right after the Tsar gets re-elected.

Not to mention that "siloviks" who aren't "magic" couldn't catch themselves the terrorists at the scene of the crime, but caught them with ease just a few hours later at the Ukrainian border. Because, of course, where else? Doesn't look like "incompetence" to me.

Western security services are saying, quite bluntly, that this was an ISIS-K operation. You are quite literally chugging the propaganda shake Putin made for you. Please stop. 

[Hapless]

[Battlefront.com]

2 minutes ago, MOS:96B2P said:

 

I would not read to much into a police / military type building being located close to the scene of the attack.  If it was a police / military building that had a Quick Reaction Force (QRF) standing by that would matter.  Then it might be interesting to speculate about said QRFs response or lack of response. 

However many police / military type buildings serve as administrative, logistic, training and communication centers.  Maybe even interrogation and lock-up facilities.  Depending on the type of building (even one associated with "SOF") and the time of night it is very possible there were only a few people present or maybe just a night janitor. 

Of course if we learn the building was the staging area for a QRF assigned to this civilian event then the building has some relevance.  Very possible this building, at this time of night, did not contain first responders and played no role at all. 

Exactly.  Conducting a terrorist attack opposite a stand by rapid response unit that didn't respond within an hour is very, very different than an administrative building.

To put this into US framework... "They attacked a school located next to a National Guard vehicle repair center, yet it took the National Guard 2 hours to respond!". 

Steve

[kraze]

4 minutes ago, Battlefront.com said:

This is getting dumber by the post.

Then why not have a "Ukrainian" drone smash into the very same theater?  Why not have a bunch of Russian FSB agents running around screaming "Slava Ukraini!" as they shot innocent people?  Why immediately blame Caucasians for the attack, and then try to establish a connection to Kyiv that has absolutely no precedence for existing?

My god... I feel like the intelligence level in this thread just dropped off a cliff.

Steve

because a drone with minimal victims or "bravely catching would-be terrorists before they can do the thing" doesn't mobilize Russia.

Nobody in Russia cares if a few people die, that's like an everyday thing.

Firing a bunch of Shmel rounds into a school building, burning a hundred children alive, does.

Are we really arguing if killing a whole bunch of people as some kind of a bloody propaganda ritual makes sense in Russia? Seriously? 

Edited March 23 by kraze

[Battlefront.com]

3 minutes ago, billbindc said:

Western security services are saying, quite bluntly, that this was an ISIS-K operation. You are quite literally chugging the propaganda shake Putin made for you. Please stop. 

The best way to spin up a conspiracy theory is to take something factual and twist it into something counter factual.  This is to be expected from someone who wants everything to fit into a nice, neat, per-established view of the world.

Steve

[Battlefront.com]

8 minutes ago, kraze said:

because a drone with minimal victims or "bravely catching would-be terrorists before they can do the thing" doesn't mobilize Russia.

Nobody in Russia cares if a few people die, that's like an everyday thing.

Firing a bunch of Shmel rounds into a school building, burning a hundred children alive, does.

Then come up with a terrorist situation as I described with people running around pretending to be Ukrainian instead of Russian Caucasians.  Really, it's not that hard to do.  In fact, Russia has already done this on a small scale several times earlier in the war.

We all know Putin is evil.  We all know he has done, and will continue to do, evil things to his own people to further his own agenda.  But you know what?  The world is a complicated and violent place.  Putin is not the only one that kills children or theater goers to further his cause.  So it can be both true that Putin loves to kill his own people and that there's someone else who just killed a bunch of Russians for whatever they believe in.

Look, if you want to be a conspiracy theorist and try to convince people that the world is flat because Russia says it is round, that's fine.  But do not do it here.  My patience with your lack of interest in being objective and discussing the events rationally based on a broad view is wearing very thin.

As the saying goes, "straighten up and fly right, or you will crash and burn".  Stop peddling this nonsense or I will put you on a vacation.

Steve

[Battlefront.com]

28 minutes ago, Hapless said:

Quote from a Politico article on the speech:

Quote

Putin said 11 people have been detained in the killings, including the four gunmen. “They tried to hide and moved toward Ukraine, where, according to preliminary data, a window was prepared for them on the Ukrainian side to cross the border,” Putin said in a speech on Russian television Saturday.

https://www.politico.eu/article/vladimir-putin-ukraine-moscow-concert-hall-terrorist-attack-russia/

Obviously anything out of Putin's mouth must be treated as being, at best, a distortion of the truth.  More likely it's complete BS.

However, it wouldn't be entirely illogical for the terrorists to try to escape across Russia's border to some other country instead of trying to return home.  That's what they teach you in "How to be a fugitive from justice - 101" (for non Americans, this would be an entry level higher education class).  However, Ukraine is a poor choice.  Yes, it is closer.  Yes it is hostile to Russia.  But what are the chances of getting over the border in a hot warzone?  Especially when their side of the border is looking for people matching their description.

So, if the terrorists did have any intention of getting to Ukraine, and somehow Russia picked up on that, then it was a fantasy plan of the terrorists.  As in "I know!  Let's go to Ukraine!".  Because this was a well planned attack, I doubt they came up with such a dumb idea.  More logically, despite the great distances involved, one of the former Soviet "Stans" would be a far safer bet. 

Therefore, what Putin said is most likely complete fabrication.  I know, shocking conclusion!

Steve

[riptides]

Putin had/has a very good opportunity to end the war in Ukraine by diverting national attention to a new threat. ISIS.

Too bad he will miss it.

 

[Harmon Rabb]

52 minutes ago, Hapless said:

If I was Putin ( what an unpleasant thought) I would try to play down the radical Islamic angle of this attack right now.

I imagine that with the stresses that this war has already put on Russian society, increased tensions between Muslims and Christians in Russia are the last thing he wants or needs right now. Putin of all people should remember how dangerous that can be for Russia from his experiences in the 90s and early 2000s.

 

Edited March 23 by Harmon Rabb

[panzermartin]

33 minutes ago, Battlefront.com said:

No, it makes ABSOLUTELY NO SENSE that this was connected to Ukraine.  This is how dumb conspiracy theories get started.  Please stop contributing to it.

As with other totally lazy and counter factual theories, yours misses the fact that the world is rather complicated.  Why would ISIS be doing something in Russia and not Gaza?  Some possibilities:

1. ISIS has nothing to do with this and is just trying to take credit to make itself seem relevant again.
2. A local group came up with the idea and someone within that group has ties to ISIS, so he made a phone call and ISIS said "that sounds great!  We've got some money and a planning guy we can send your way, as long as we get to take credit for it".
3. ISIS has tried, or is trying, to do something within Israel but it's really difficult to do because a) ISIS has absolutely no history of being organized enough to do squat against Israel and b) Israel's security services, while not perfect, are pretty good.
4. ISIS has been planning this attack for more than a year, therefore it was well in motion before Gaza happened.  What do you think ISIS would do, CANCEL the attack on Moscow because they need to do something in Gaza?  Hardly.

Look, those are 4 logical and plausible explanations as to why this is ISIS.  They weren't difficult to come up with, but if you don't even try to look you won't see even the most obvious things staring you in the face.

Steve

Sure makes sense Russia is more prone to these kind of attacks now, all busy with the war effort. 

But ISIS has been an obscure organization that at some point of its life even received training and funding and even western weapons from various sides. They nearly defeated Russian backed Assad. So yes, they can be manipulated to serve supreme forces in their powerplay like other terror groups in the past. Used and then discarded. There are also probably more players than NATO/Ukraine that want to see Russia dragged in a second front. 

And as you say, we really have no clue what ISIS stands for anymore. It could be a random office in some desert that "buys" terror attacks just to keep the brand/funding going. That doesn't make this attack "more Isis" but more of a 3rd party operation. 

The fact that these guys got so easily arrested and made no final stand makes them look less like the usual jihadist radicals. No Allah akbar no fight till death. Did this for 5k? Weird. Unless this arrest is all staged of course, and the real shooters are heading for some Stan now. 

 

 

 

 

 

[Haiduk]

ISIS Amaq news agensy issued a statement, where claimed ISIS fighters did the attack in Moscow. Allegedly on the video four men are present, weared in similar closes like and real attackers. Though, ISIS as many of other terrorists likes to take on themeselves any resonance action, to increase own authority, so this information can be fake too. 

About this writes SITE Group, which monitor terrorists media and TG. 

https://ent.siteintelgroup.com/Jihadist-Threat-Statements/is-reveals-4-fighters-involved-in-moscow-concert-hall-attack-boasts-fiercest-attack-in-years.html

Comparison of persons from ISIS video and detained attackers (the link only, I can't paste a photo from TG here): https://t.me/rusbrief/213478

On other hand Russian media and TG continue to boost "Ukrainan trail" thread. NTV TV channel issued on air deepfake video, where Oleksandr Danylov, the Secreter of National Securit Council "confirms" participation of Ukriane in this attack.

And here enough logical plan from the one of milblogger about why all this was need:

Edited March 23 by Haiduk

[Battlefront.com]

13 minutes ago, riptides said:

Putin had/has a very good opportunity to end the war in Ukraine by diverting national attention to a new threat. ISIS.

Too bad he will miss it.

 

Yup.  And if this were a Russian false flag operation (which I think the evidence strongly suggests it is not) the obvious motivation would be to shift the public's attention away from the grueling war against a non-threat and towards something that is a traditional REAL threat to Russian security.

It strains the brain to think how Putin could say to people "we were just attacked by our own people in the Caucuses.  Therefore, I have authorized a mobilization of 300,000 men to continue waging war on Ukraine".  No matter dumb the average Russian civilian is, I think it strains credibility to suggest they are that level of stupid.

This reminds me of the conspiracy theories that surrounded the US 9/11 attacks.  The theory being that the Bush Admin wanted to wage war on Iraq, they faked the attack, blamed Afghanistan, and then invaded Afghanistan as a cover story for a War on Terror that would eventually be waged against Iraq.

Which supposed that the Bush Admin was brilliant and convincing the world about 9/11 was the fault of Afghanistan, but was too stupid to figure out a way to come up with a plan that would have instead blamed Iraq.

My god that is some tortured non-thinking.  And yet, we're seeing the same tortured BS here.

After 9/11 the Bush Admin tried to make lemon from lemonade and find a way to tie Iraq to Al Qaeda and/or terrorism generally.  It took a few years for them to come up with something that worked well enough to launch a war against Iraq, but they did in fact manage to do it.  Putin is, not surprisingly, already trying to do the same thing by trying to use an inconvenient and distracting reality (a domestic terrorist attack) to further the thing he really cares about (Ukraine).  That's a logical presumption to make that is entirely consistent with the facts.

Steve

[omae2]

57 minutes ago, Hapless said:

Well i guess now we just have to wait for russians to solve the mystery why they would try to cross a frontline to flee russia. But its very clear that the russians saying that Ukraine is an accomplice at best. To a genuine terror attack. I couldn't imagine that they will come to this conclusion. But i bet that the plot will thicken in the next two week and in April a bunch of men will get a letter to pack their things and buy body armor.

[Battlefront.com]

17 minutes ago, panzermartin said:

Sure makes sense Russia is more prone to these kind of attacks now, all busy with the war effort. 

But ISIS has been an obscure organization that at some point of its life even received training and funding and even western weapons from various sides. They nearly defeated Russian backed Assad. So yes, they can be manipulated to serve supreme forces in their powerplay like other terror groups in the past. Used and then discarded. There are also probably more players than NATO/Ukraine that want to see Russia dragged in a second front. 

And as you say, we really have no clue what ISIS stands for anymore. It could be a random office in some desert that "buys" terror attacks just to keep the brand/funding going. That doesn't make this attack "more Isis" but more of a 3rd party operation.

Right, so you are now agreeing with me that there's plenty of plausible explanations for an ISIS connection that you previously said didn't exist?  Good, that means you're taking in new information and not totally lost to conspiracy theory thinking.

17 minutes ago, panzermartin said:

The fact that these guys got so easily arrested and made no final stand makes them look less like the usual jihadist radicals. No Allah akbar no fight till death. Did this for 5k? Weird. Unless this arrest is all staged of course, and the real shooters are heading for some Stan now.

More evidence that ISIS was not the brains or the muscle behind the operation, even though they might have helped fund and plan it.

This is how Al Qaeda worked for many, many years.  Still does, I think.  Some local group of Islamic aligned extremists comes up with an idea, Al Qaeda would support it, and then claim some/all the credit for it.  That is why it has been called a "network". 

ISIS works exactly the same way.  It is not some sort of centralized and unified organization that directly controls everything done in its name.  No, it is very much an opportunist group that firmly believes "the enemy of my enemy is my brother".  They will support their "brothers" even if there is nothing in common other than Islamist fighting against Infidels.

Steve

 

[Astrophel]

16 hours ago, The_Capt said:

During the Cold War almost every terror organization was influenced, supported or at least talking to one side of the other.  So as we get deeper into whatever this thing is I suspect we will begin to see the relationship between terrorism and the state evolve beyond “we do not negotiate”.  We will very likely see all sorts of backroom deals and “freedom fighters” in proxy nation struggles.

That said, ISIL is very likely going to wind up alienated by all great powers as simply too unstable - this is not the first time this has come up.  The US spent a decade actively hunting ISIL down all over the MENA and any drug deals with them are pure political poison.  Not to mention they are full fledged loons who really can’t be rationally negotiated with.  So in this case I suspect it is simply a “duck”.  What is odd is why ISIL is picking a fight with Russia now?  Russia did side with the Assad regime and is no friend to ISIL or Islamist extremism; however, why wage a high profile attack now?  Are they thinking Russia is overextended?  Oddly, ISIL could become a point of cooperation between Russian and the US, much like some terror groups did during the Cold War.

This one is really kinda strange.

You are right, this one is kinda strange.  The reason it is strange is because we understand so very little about russian internal politics.  The timing cannot be coincidental - Putin having just been re-elected.  As far as I have detected there was no conciliatory gesture to minorities, inviting Hamas to Moscow with friends and family  achieved nothing, and the Christian dog fight in Ukraine continues to kill a disproportionate number of russian moslims used as cannon fodder.  No wonder ISIL/ISIS or whatever you call them believe in their righteousness at this moment.

Perhaps Putin's attempt to drag Ukraine into the narrative is a crude and blunt warning internally that he is prepared to wage his civil war on two fronts.

There is too much we do not understand.  What happened with the Wagner uprising is still a puzzle for me.

What seems clear is that this act of terrorism is not likely to remain an isolated instance.  Executing an attack like this so successfully against a country at war and forewarned even is the first shot not the last.  Putin has a second front whether he likes it or not.

[Battlefront.com]

19 minutes ago, omae2 said:

Well i guess now we just have to wait for russians to solve the mystery why they would try to cross a frontline to flee russia. But its very clear that the russians saying that Ukraine is an accomplice at best. To a genuine terror attack. I couldn't imagine that they will come to this conclusion. But i bet that the plot will thicken in the next two week and in April a bunch of men will get a letter to pack their things and buy body armor.

On that note, let's return to the ISW report that Dan linked to a bunch of pages ago.

It seems that Russia is finding it's current recruitment strategy slowing down to the point where they need to do switch strategies in order to keep the bodies flowing.  This is something like the 3rd of 4th time they've had to switch gears since this war started, so it's hardly new and therefore hardly surprising.  In fact, it's been predicted for some time now by anybody paying attention to how Russia has been keeping the bodies flowing into Ukraine.

My take on the reporting from ISW is that Russia is setting itself up for multiple options.  This is typical Putin behavior, where you identify a goal, lay multiple paths to get to it, then when the time comes choose the best option available.

Whatever is being planned it seems that they are looking to do it on a large scale.  Whether it's activating people stupid enough to have certain military paperwork, going after targeted groups (immigrants), or preparing for a second mobilization... who knows.  I bet there's plans for all three possibilities and probably several more.  No matter what might be chosen it would require a large institutional effort to pull off grabbing 10s of thousands of people in a very short period of time, therefore getting the apparatus warmed up and ready to go is logical.

With that in mind, it seems that we're witnessing Russia preparing to have a pool of manpower available for meat assaults this summer.  I could have guessed this even without looking at the ISW report or anything else.  This is what the facts of this war so far indicate will happen.  We just don't yet know the form it will take.

Steve

[Astrophel]

42 minutes ago, panzermartin said:

The fact that these guys got so easily arrested and made no final stand makes them look less like the usual jihadist radicals. No Allah akbar no fight till death. Did this for 5k? Weird. Unless this arrest is all staged of course, and the real shooters are heading for some Stan now. 

 

 

 

 

 

We have no evidence that the people being arrested had anything to do with the attack.  People like Putin like to round up likely looking suspects quickly to show they are still on top of things.  Tomorrow we find out whether they look like Tajiks or Ukrainians.

I just read in the Mail, alongside dramatic footage from russia, "RT propaganda chief Margarita Simonyan said the suspects had been stopped 100 kilometres [62 miles] from the border with Ukraine". 

Really??????

 

Edited March 23 by Astrophel
New quote from Simonyan