Russians enhance Azov naval fleet, train near Ukrainian border

The Russian Navy has introduced five warships into Azov
Sea in the last month that were brought from the Caspian Sea flotilla, Andriy
Klymenko, the editor the blackseanews.net news site, told the glavred.info news
site in an interview published on June 11. Beforehand, the only Russian ships
in the Azov Sea were with the coast guard and border service. “An Azov flotilla
of the Russian Naval Fleet has practically been formed,” he said. It consists
of six artillery boats, six amphibious ships, and two missile corvettes.
Besides attacking the Ukrainian Azov Sea coastline, he suggested the flotilla
could be used to gain access to water supplies in the Northern Crimea Canal,
which had been cut off from the peninsula in 2014.

More than 30,000 Russian soldiers, operating more than
5,000 military hardware units, participated in defense training exercises
against weapons of mass destruction on June 13, the press service of the
western military division of the Russian Armed Forces reported that day. The
hardware included Iskander tactical ballistic missile complexes and C-400 air
defense missile systems. The training exercises occurred throughout Russia,
including near the Ukrainian border and in the Baltic Sea.

Zenon Zawada: There are
those who dismiss the Russian threat of war as a mere smokescreen not to be
taken seriously. But these same experts can’t explain how Russia can save face
in this current conflict without losing control of Donbas or Crimea. And they
ignore Russia’s serious goal of keeping the Ukrainian territory out of NATO.

With evidence such as these news reports mounting
daily, we beleive the Russian leadership is considering an expanded military
offensive as one of their options in its conflict with the West. And it is
ready to provoke more separatist activity in Ukraine during the 2019 elections,
especially if they become chaotic. The Russian leadership is also considering a
military offensive during the election campaign to convince more Ukrainians to
vote for candidates calling for capitulation.