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| Russian President Vladimir Putin |
By Clint Richards
Moscow is drawing a line in the sand in Ukraine, while putting negotiations with Tokyo on ice.
Russia began military drills on the Kuril Island chain just off its far eastern peninsula of Kamchatka on Tuesday. The drills are happening in tandem with Russia sending an aid convoy into eastern Ukraine, which some are calling a pretext to invasion. The two actions have alarmed Ukraine’s Western backers and Japan. While the drill in the Kurils is relatively small scale, it is a further blow to already deteriorating relations with Tokyo, which had hoped to come to an agreement with Russia over the disputed islands that Japan refers to as the Northern Territories. Russia appears intent on sending another message to the countries allied against it, after its most recent round of retaliatory sanctions on Western imports. However, Russia’s drill in the Kuril Islands is less incendiary, and could reflect Japan’s own wish to limit the damage to their relationship caused by Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced on Monday that a Moscow “in collaboration with representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross, is sending an aid convoy to Ukraine,” Reuters reported, without stating where the convoy was headed. As Ukrainian forces are encircling pro-Russian enclaves in the east, Kiev also warned that Russia has 45,000 troops along their shared border. NATO also said “there was a ‘high probability’ that Moscow could intervene militarily in the country’s east.” U.S. President Barack Obama said any intervention by Russia without Ukraine’s consent would be a violation of international law and “unacceptable,” while in a European Commission statement, President Jose Manuel Barroso warned against “any unilateral military actions in Ukraine, under any pretext, including humanitarian.”
Read the full story at The Diplomat