Russia has actually been waging war on Ukraine for 8 years now and even more attacks are extremely possible, according to a research study fellow at the Australian National University’s Centre for European Studies.
Some 15,000 soldiers and civilians have actually been eliminated because Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 and attacked some areas in Ukraine, Sonia Mycak informed CNBC’s “Street Signs Asia” on Tuesday.
The opportunities of a major intrusion are “unfortunately very, very high” at this moment, she stated.
The amassing of soldiers at the border in between Russia and Ukraine in previous months is not a “new or recent act of aggression,” however part of a “war that Russia has been waging,” she stated.
“What’s happened in the last 24 hours is simply part of that war strategy that has been going on now for eight years,” she stated. “Further incursions into Ukrainian territory are very, very possible.”
However, whether Russia will increase aggressiveness versus Ukraine is still a concern of “if” not “when,” particularly if quick action is taken by European nations and the United States, Mycak stated.
Her remarks followed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s Monday night statement that he would acknowledge 2 breakaway areas in eastern Ukraine as independent. Putin provided a decree requiring forces to go into Donetsk and Luhansk– though it is uncertain what that objective involves.
That is the risk at this moment– that the so-called acknowledgment of independent areas in Ukraine is simply a reason to go into with a lot more military force than he has actually currently done
Sonia Mycak
research study fellow
Mycak stated that appears to be a “pattern of behavior” for Putin, indicating how he “allegedly acknowledged a separatist area” in Crimea to “assist” Ukrainians who wished to break away prior to making laws to bring Crimea into the Russian Federation.
“That is the danger at this point — that the so-called recognition of independent regions in Ukraine is just an excuse to enter with even more military force than he has already done so to this point, and then incorporate those territories into the Russian Federation, thereby annexing them,” she stated.
Peter Zwack, an international fellow at the Wilson Center’s Kennan Institute, stated Russia is performing a “creeping annexation” that isn’t formalized, which has resemblances to what Moscow finished with Georgia in 2008 and Crimea in 2014.
“A key point here is that they’ve declared the peacekeepers. That is always what happens here,” he stated.
— CNBC’s Amanda Macias added to this report.
