Defense attaches meet as tension rises in Ukraine

The defense attaches of Canada, the UK and the U.S. met
their Ukrainian counterparts on Apr. 1 to discuss the security situation in
Ukraine. The U.S. Embassy in Kyiv tweeted about the meeting on the same day,
stating that the attaches met defense minister Taran, deputy ministers Petrenko
and Polishchuk, joint forces commander Lt General Naiev.

At the same time, Reuters reports that NATO
ambassadors held an urgent meeting in Brussels on Apr. 1 regarding the
“deployment of Russian troops near Ukraine’s borders.”

NATO is focusing on Russian military maneuvers, with
reconnaissance aircraft flying in the Black Sea off Crimea and the eastern
Baltic Sea at the time this report was published.

James Hydzik: Russian maneuvers will be watched continuously. The NATO countries
will respond to a further Russian transgression of Ukraine’s borders, but what
this response would consist of is not clear at all. Unlike a NATO member, there
is no Article 5 to base action upon, and the guarantees provided by the
Budapest Memorandum have not been invoked, either.