First of all, it isn’t a true invasion. It is just an incursion of a small force. If this were a true Russian invasion, you would know it. Not only that, but the Russians would be in Kiev and Lviv within a day or two.
The Western media is all awash with reports about a “Russian invasion.” For once in their lives, they are actually not lying this time. I am convinced that the Russians have moved a considerable number of men into Ukraine. How many? An organization of Mothers of Russian Soldiers says there are 15,000 Russian soldiers fighting in the Ukraine. That figure is surely correct. How long have they been there? I would say that most of them have been there for a good two weeks and possibly longer.
There have also been Russian casualties, probably also mostly in the last two weeks. The same organization of Russian mothers says that there have been 400 Russian casualties (KIA and WIA) so far in this war. I imagine that that statement is true.
We also have reports of an armored column entering Ukraine near Novoazovsk. Reporters on the scene said that all markings on the vehicles had been painted over and that the men looked for all intents and purposes exactly like Russian Spetznatz troops. They were decked out to the hilt. Obviously this is nothing less than a column of Russian soldiers.
There is another report from near Amrovsievska of a group of what appear to be Russian troops and an armored column who entered a village and set up a checkpoint. The residents asked what they were doing there, and the soldiers said, “We are here to protect you.” This is exactly what the little green men in Crimea said when residents asked them what they were doing there.
The men had accents from all over Russia and there was not a single Donbass Russian accent among them. The residents asked how they were supposed to get to the next town over and named the town. The soldiers acted like they had not heard of the town. Obviously, this is a column of Russian soldiers from the Red Army who have moved their armored column into this town and set up checkpoints.
The ten Russian soldiers captured by the Ukies appear for the most part to be actual Russian paratroopers. Why their commanders did not tell them where they are going, I have no idea.
There are a couple of ways that Russian soldiers have gone into Ukraine.
One method is the “volunteer” method. Indeed, quite a few active duty Russian troops simply volunteered to spend part of their time as a Russian soldier fighting in Ukraine. They remained part of the Russian Army and continued to receive their salary and benefits. This method was the typical way that Russian soldiers were fighting in Ukraine until recently.
The other method is simply sending in ordinary Russian soldiers into Ukraine in columns. This has been done more recently. Some of these troops were told where they were going and what they would be doing, but others were lied to and told that they were going on a training exercise inside Russia.
How many Russian soldiers are fighting in the Ukraine? Surely the mothers’ organization figure of 15,000 is correct. I would say there are at least 15,000 Russian troops fighting in the Ukraine. But are there more? Who knows? Strelkov the other day stated that the number of units in the rebel army had swollen by 3-4X just recently.
Since the rebel army had ~20,000 mean, this seems to mean that the rebel army now has 60-80,000 troops. That appears to mean that they just got augmented by 40-60,000 new soldiers. Strelkov says that these new forces came from rebels trained across the border in Russian bases. That’s crazy. No way did 50,000 new Novorussian forces just enter the battle from the rearguard in Rostov.
Assuming that Strelkov is right, and the rebels now have 50,000 extra men overnight, this can only mean that Russia has moved 50,000 Red Army soldiers into the area.
