Germany is sending additional troops to Lithuania in response to Russia’s military buildup on the border with Ukraine and the worsening security situation in the Baltic states.
Russian tanks rolled into eastern Ukraine overnight Tuesday, ostensibly to keep peace and protect two breakaway republics that Moscow fashioned eight years ago and is now formally recognizing as independent states.
But following a 56-minute bellicose speech in which Russian leader Vladimir Putin denied the very existence of a country called Ukraine, few in Kyiv harbor any doubts that the armored columns will punch beyond Ukraine’s Donbas region, with Putin’s decision to recognize the independence of the breakaway republics of Donetsk and Luhansk being the likely prelude for more military action. VOA