Ukraine has its army ready for all-out war with Russia should it come to that, which appears more and more likely as the days go by:
DAILY MAIL – The Crimean crisis moved a step closer to all-out war today as Ukraine mobilised its armed forces and a firebrand Kremlin mouthpiece warned America to stay out of its business, declaring: ‘We could turn you to radioactive ash.’
In a sign of rising tensions following yesterday’s referendum that called for Crimea’s annexation to Russia, the Ukrainian parliament approved the deployment of up to 20,000 soldiers and declared all Ukrainian state property on the territory to be nationalized.
Tens of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers are now on stand by, including another 20,000 battle-ready reservists, prepared to fight should their government fail to find a solution to the standoff with Russia over the future of the Black Sea peninsular.
But with a pool of just 160,000 active frontline personel, the Ukrainian armed forces are dwarfed by a Russian army that includes more than 700,000 men and women and many more in reserve.
And yesterday, Moscow appeared to up the ante on an already volatile situation when the head of its state news agency, Dmitry Kiselyov, issued a thinly-veiled threat to America on live TV, urging the superpower to stay out of the crisis or risk facing the full force of Russia’s military muscle.
Speaking against a backdrop of a nuclear mushroom cloud, Kiselyov – who was appointed personally by President Putin – told viewers of his popular show: ‘Russia is the only country in the world that is realistically capable of turning the United States into radioactive ash.’
He made the incendiary remarks as Crimea’s parliament declared the region an independent state, after 96.6 per cent of its residents voted to break off from Ukraine and seek to join Russia in a referendum last night.
The referendum, however, is not recognized by the West, and the United States and the European Union are preparing sanctions against Russia, whose troops have been occupying Crimea for several weeks.
And last night the White House dismissed the secession vote in Crimea as an illegal power grab by Russia, saying it violated both the Ukrainian constitution and international law, and urged president Putin not to follow through with threats to annex the peninsular.