Report: Russian Forces Moving Toward Ukraine

The Interpreter’s live blog reports that Russian troops are moving toward Ukraine.

Social media is flooded today with fresh pictures, videos, and reports of Russian tanks and troops on the move towards the Ukrainian border.

Still seeing fresh videos of Russian tanks near Ukrainian border. No indication which direction they are travelling http://t.co/Ad2r7YI8Cc

— Daniel Sandford (@BBCDanielS) March 25, 2014

These videos, reportedly taken yesterday, claim to show lots of Russian armor loaded on trains in Voronezh, a Russian town just northeast of Kharkiv (map). We have not yet been able to geolocate the videos, however.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YhUdomSpQc

Russian army movements in Novozybkov, 50km away from Ukraine border. Today at 07:22 VIA http://t.co/nnM0k5hvx4 pic.twitter.com/fXeYjsCGJw

— Jerry Popowicz (@JerryPopowicz) March 26, 2014

More at the link.

Earlier this week, news broke that Russian nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky penned a disturbing letter. In that letter, the Putin adviser and leader of Russia’s Liberal Democratic party proposed dividing Ukraine’s territory between Russia, Romania, Hungary and Poland. Zhirinovsky is the deputy speaker in Russia’s Duma, and is often aligned with President Vladimir Putin.