Though the “truce” between Ukraine and Russia allows the Ukrainian forces to remain in the Crimea through Friday and as recently as this morning Ukrainian officials had suggested troops would remain long past the deadline, fighting if need be, the Ukrainian government has backed down and is now calling for a full withdrawal from the peninsula.
That’s best case scenario for them now, however, as a pair of Russian generals are said to be on the peninsula right now and courting the Ukrainian troops at those bases, offering lucrative packages for defectors.
“The pay is five times that offered by Ukraine,” noted one of the Ukrainian captains, adding that pensions were also five times as large and could be collected 20 years earlier than the pensions on Ukraine military positions.
The defection is a no-brainer for people who were from the Crimea in the first place, which includes many of the naval personnel, and even Ukrainian officials predicted that many were likely to take them up on the offer.
and once again checkmate for putin. nicely played vlad. nicely played.
Sounds like a sweet deal (better than this awful job market in the US).
Where do I sign up?
…so a few days ago hotheads in Ukraine spun keeping Russia on one side of a sandbar as a military victory. S'pose Russia will be spiking-the-ball on this one?
Putin seems to be onto something here.
Kind of tough to keep troops on the front line when IMF austerity cuts pensions in half for Ukrainians, and Russia offers five times as much to defect.
I wonder if Johnny-Mac is gonna jump a military transport and "invade" Ukraine to convince those Ukrainian military who are thinking of becoming "traitors" that they're making a big mistake because, well, Putin is baaaaaad and proper economic enslavement by the IMF austerity is goooood.
And on a related subject, I sure hope that these Senators and House members who are utilizing military transport to flit around the world stirring up things are repaying the USG for these trips. The notion that they are traveling on "official" business is pure hokey.
the senators, hopefully, will take the Malasian flight path
A very positive development. Peace seems to be breaking out. Of course, it suggests that the Russian military is in deep trouble if it has to tout for yet another group of "I'm only in it for the money" conscripts. Soldiers not from Crimea will probably just go home, where they have a chance of getting a work permit for the EU or a US Green Card. No Russian general can top an offer like that!