Russia’s ‘serious intentions’ as forces amass on the Ukraine border

Russia has deployed more than 100,000 troops to the Ukraine border in recent weeks, sparking concerns of an invasion.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg this week said there’s a “real risk for new armed conflict in Europe”.

Australian Defence Minister Peter Dutton has agreed to work with the United States and United Kingdom to deter Russia from taking “whatever action” it is considering against Ukraine.

Moscow claims the deployment of troops on the Ukrainian border is because it can’t “tolerate” NATO’s eastward expansion.

But Professor of International Security and Intelligence Studies at the ANU, John Blaxland, says there’s another reason for the deployment of menacing forces.

“They claim it’s to prevent the encroachment of NATO but really this is about consolidating Vladimir Putin’s vision of Russia, with its sphere of influence,” he told Ross and Russel.

“Russia has serious intentions of preventing Ukraine being more integrated into Europe and NATO, and whatever that takes is what they will do.

“So far it has involved interference operations, in terms of buying off politicians, in terms of planning for preparing and undertaking some cyber attacks against infrastructure and of course deploying over 100,000 troops along the border.

“They are well poised to do a lot more but the price of doing more is what Vladimir Putin is having to weigh up at the moment.”

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