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[…] The consensus view conveniently ignores how EU and U.S. diplomacy effectively set the stage for Ukraine’s destabilization and breakup. By overplaying their hand in EU negotiations with Ukraine, Brussels diplomats, supported by Washington, ended up handing Vladimir Putin the golden opportunity to claw back Crimea and to destabilize Ukraine’s evolution toward democracy. If not for excessive negotiating demands by Brussels, primarily on governance issues, the breakup of Ukraine could have been avoided, along with all the negative consequences that have since ensued. While Ukraine has acquired EU associate status, it has paid a high price for membership: the occupation of Crimea, stalemated civil war in Donbass, and 14,000 lives lost. How Ukraine got to this point carries important lessons for Western allies in dealing with the ongoing crisis. Läs artikel

”The prevailing policy of Washington is to destroy the previously reached agreements in the field of arms control,” the Russian Foreign Ministry says in a statement on December 18 as the country is now formally out of the Open Skies Treaty. […]

Norway’s then-Foreign Minister, Ine Eriksen Søreide, said to the Barents Observer that her country was “disappointed by the US decision to withdraw from the Open Skies agreement.”

The foreign ministries of France, Belgium, Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Italy, Luxemburg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Sweden signed a joint statement regretting Donald Trump’s decision.

“The Open Skies Treaty is a crucial element of the confidence-building framework that was created over the past decades in order to improve transparency and security across the Euro-Atlantic area,” the statement said. […]

While such observation flights can’t be done anymore, Norway and Russia continue inspecting each other’s military forces in the northern regions under the Vienna document. The document is followed by all 57 member states to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and is also aimed at ensuring military transparency by exchanging information on their armed forces, military organizations, manpower and major weapons and equipment systems.

The exchanged information can later be confirmed by joint inspections. Läs artikel

Läs uttalandet av flera stater till stöd för Open Skies.

Ingen andre ordninger gir land samme mulighet til å verifisere militær aktivitet som foregår innenfor hverandres grenser som Open Skies. I nesten 20 år har USA, Canada, Russland og land i Europa hatt muligheter til å fly med sine egne fly og ta bilder over hverandres territorium. Det har latt dem samle inn bilder av militære installasjoner og eventuelle troppeforflytninger.

If the conflict between Russia and Ukraine deepens, the United States should send more troops to reinforce its military presence in Europe, the head of Sweden’s armed forces says.

Gen. Micael Bydén, the Swedish supreme commander, spoke to POLITICO Thursday amid a visit to Washington where he met with counterparts including Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Russia’s menacing of Ukraine is top of mind for Sweden as well as neighboring countries. President Vladimir Putin has amassed nearly 100,000 troops along the border with Ukraine, which Moscow earlier invaded in 2014. […]

Bydén, whose country is not part of NATO but works closely with the military alliance, said America should send military reinforcements to Europe if the Russia-Ukraine crisis takes a turn for the worse. He didn’t define what he meant by that, but responded affirmatively when asked if he’d like to see more U.S. troops in his neighborhood should Russia take the step of once again invading Ukraine.

“If the situation — I wouldn’t say ‘require’ because that’s the wrong word — but if the situation would worsen, I do believe it would be good to have a bigger footprint,” Bydén said.

Asked where the troops should go, the Swede said, “probably where they are today. Because you have bases in Europe. It’s not like you’re not there. It’s more it’s more like… reinforce what you have… More people, more capabilities.”[…]

Bydén declined to say how many more troops the United States should send. He also declined to give details about his meetings with U.S. officials and what each side pledged to the other.

Asked for comment, a Pentagon spokesperson said: “The Department of Defense and the Sweden Ministry of Defense enjoy long-standing cooperation as highlighted in the 2016 Bilateral Statement of Intent. We also enjoy strong trilateral cooperation with Sweden and Finland, both of which are Nordic NATO Enhanced Opportunity Partners.”

The Swedish military leader stressed that European countries should step up their own coordination and actions in the event of a Russian move against Ukraine. But when asked if Sweden would join NATO, he noted that was not in his country’s current government’s plans. Läs artikel

Frontene er steile mellom Russland og Vesten. Men torsdag kunne brigadesjef Pål E. Berglund vise en russisk delegasjon rundt militærbasene i Indre Troms.

Besøket er del av rustningsavtalen kjent som Wien-dokumentet fra 1990, og som ble revidert i 2011. Avtalen mellom medlemslandene i Organisasjonen for sikkerhet og samarbeid i Europa (OSSE) er en av de siste rustningsavtalene som Russland fortsatt deltar i, når landet offisielt trekker seg ut av Open Skies-avtalen 18. desember. Läs artikel

Förslag  från Ryssland till överenskommelse.

The Russian Federation and the member States of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), hereinafter referred to as the Parties, reaffirming their aspiration to improve relations and deepen mutual understanding, […]

have agreed as follows:

Article 1

The Parties shall guide in their relations by the principles of cooperation, equal and indivisible security. They shall not strengthen their security individually, within international organizations, military alliances or coalitions at the expense of the security of other Parties.

The Parties shall settle all international disputes in their mutual relations by peaceful means and refrain from the use or threat of force in any manner inconsistent with the purposes of the United Nations.

The Parties shall not create conditions or situations that pose or could be perceived as a threat to the national security of other Parties.

The Parties shall exercise restraint in military planning and conducting exercises to reduce risks of eventual dangerous situations in accordance with their obligations under international law, including those set out in intergovernmental agreements on the prevention of incidents at sea outside territorial waters and in the airspace above, as well as in intergovernmental agreements on the prevention of dangerous military activities. […]

Article 4

The Russian Federation and all the Parties that were member States of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization as of 27 May 1997, respectively, shall not deploy military forces and weaponry on the territory of any of the other States in Europe in addition to the forces stationed on that territory as of 27 May 1997. With the consent of all the Parties such deployments can take place in exceptional cases to eliminate a threat to security of one or more Parties. […]

Article 6

All member States of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization commit themselves to refrain from any further enlargement of NATO, including the accession of Ukraine as well as other States.

Article 7

The Parties that are member States of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization shall not conduct any military activity on the territory of Ukraine as well as other States in the Eastern Europe, in the South Caucasus and in Central Asia.

In order to exclude incidents the Russian Federation and the Parties that are member States of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization shall not conduct military exercises or other military activities above the brigade level in a zone of agreed width and configuration on each side of the border line of the Russian Federation and the states in a military alliance with it, as well as Parties that are member States of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Läs förslaget till överenskommelse

Interference by the United States and its NATO allies in Ukraine’s civil struggle has exacerbated the crisis within Ukraine, undermined the
possibility of bringing the two easternmost provinces back under Kyiv’s control, and raised the specter of possible conflict between nucleararmed powers. Furthermore, in denying that Russia has a “right” to oppose extension of a hostile military alliance to its national borders, the United States ignores its own history of declaring and enforcing for two centuries a sphere of influence in the Western hemisphere.
The fact is, Ukraine is a state but not yet a nation. In the thirty year of its independence, it has not yet found a leader who can unite its citizens in a shared concept of Ukrainian identity. Yes, Russia has interfered, but it is not Russian interference that created Ukrainian disunity but rather the haphazard way the country was assembled from parts that were not always mutually compatible. Läs artikel

Servicemen from the Northern Fleet’s 200th Separate Motor Rifle Brigade had spent four months in the training field of Yeisk in southern Russia to learn to handle the system. This week, they used their new acquired skills in one of the shooting ranges in Pechenga, few kilometers from the border to Norway and Finland.

“We have been waiting a long time for this equipment,” says Anatoly Raskevich, head of a local missile calculation unit, told Army broadcaster TV Zvezda. “We are very happy and satisfied that we have acquired this technology and can work properly with the combat machines and the command point,” he added.

The Barnaul-T enables the local units to significantly enhance their air space surveillance and track down flying enemy objects. That includes drones, local instructors explain. Läs artikel

[…] III. SÄKERHET OCH FÖRSVAR

10. EU står fast vid den globala regelbaserade världsordningen, med Förenta nationerna i centrum, och är fast beslutet att stärka samarbetet med partner i hela världen för att vi tillsammans ska kunna ta itu med gemensamma hot och utmaningar.

11. Mot bakgrund av den ökade globala instabiliteten, den allt större strategiska konkurrensen och de komplexa säkerhetshoten kommer EU att ta ett större ansvar för sin egen säkerhet och på försvarsområdet, eftersträva ett strategiskt tillvägagångssätt och öka sin förmåga att agera autonomt. EU kommer att främja sina intressen och värden, stärka unionens motståndskraft och beredskap för att effektivt möta säkerhetshot och säkerhetsutmaningar och fortsätta att arbeta för global fred och säkerhet. […]

13. EU är fast beslutet att föra ett nära samarbete med Nato, med full respekt för de principer som fastställs i fördragen och de som Europeiska rådet enats om, inbegripet principerna om delaktighet, ömsesidighet och EU:s beslutsautonomi. De transatlantiska förbindelserna och samarbetet mellan EU och Nato är avgörande för vår övergripande säkerhet. Ett EU som är starkare och har större förmåga på säkerhets- och försvarsområdet kommer att bidra positivt till global och transatlantisk säkerhet och kompletterar Nato, som för de stater som är medlemmar i denna också i fortsättningen ska utgöra grunden för deras kollektiva försvar. Europeiska rådet stöder ett stärkt strategiskt partnerskap mellan EU och Nato och ser fram emot den tredje gemensamma förklaringen om samarbetet mellan EU och Nato. Den ska utarbetas på ett inkluderande sätt, behandla nya hot och utmaningar och omfatta sådana områden för utökat samarbete som resiliens, cyberhot och hybridhot, klimatförändringar och säkerhet, rymden samt ny och omstörtande teknik. […]

Europeiska rådet betonar att Ryssland utan dröjsmål måste se till att minska spänningarna till följd av den militära uppbyggnaden vid landets gräns mot Ukraina och den aggressiva retoriken. Europeiska rådet uttrycker ännu en gång sitt fulla stöd för Ukrainas suveränitet och territoriella integritet. Ytterligare militär aggression mot Ukraina kommer att få omfattande konsekvenser och medföra stora kostnader, inbegripet restriktiva åtgärder som samordnas med partner. 24. Europeiska rådet uppmanar till diplomatiska insatser och stöder Normandie-formatet när det gäller att åstadkomma ett fullständigt genomförande av Minskavtalen. Läs dokumentet