Maskirovka

Wikipedia defines Maskirovka like this:

Maskirovka is a Russian word (Маскировка) pertaining to the business of military deception. Although the word is sometimes translated as ‘camouflage‘, this belies its much broader meaning that includes all measures, active and passive, designed to deceive the enemy, which includes: concealment (skrytie), imitation using decoys and military dummies (imitasiia), manoeuvres intended to deceive (demonstrativnye manevry) and disinformation(dezinformatsiia) The Soviet Military Encyclopeadia defines maskirovka thus:

‘The means of securing combat operations and the daily activities of forces; a complexity of measures, directed to mislead the enemy regarding the presence and disposition of forces, various military objectives, their condition, combat readiness and operations, and also the plans of the commander … maskirovka contributes to the achievement of surprise for the actions of forces, the preservation of combat readiness and the increased survivability of objectives.’

Let’s look at the Ukraine/Russia border. There is a British term, shite, and it perfectly describes the tactical situation there.  There is nothing strategic about what these folks are doing. The rebels are getting their butts pounded but the Ukrainians are paying the price with big equipment losses.  Things are slowing down, the Russians are attempting to put more equipment into the hands of the rebels and reinforce with regular Russian troops, but they can only do so much.  The Russians are doing airdrops into a few areas.  But, overall, the tempo is slowing down…  into what I am calling a strategic pause.  Sure, combat is still going on but there have been no major movements in some time.

Then a few things hit me today.

Five most famous military provocations of the Western world.  This was posted today by a Russian information warfare expert.  I immediately thought that the MH 17 shootdown, but that wasn’t good enough.  Then I saw this: Terrorists made provocative attack of the territory of the Russian Federation from mortars, – the National Security and Defense Council.  Russians firing onto a Russian village.  Then another manufactured provocation: 45 Ukrainian shells hit south Russian village.

Consider this.  In the past few weeks we have seen reports of Russian “Peacekeeping” forces only a few kilometers from the Ukraine.  Here, Putin announces he may send in Peacekeeping forces into Ukraine.

The Russians will most likely move “Peacekeeping” forces into Ukraine and create a buffer zone, expanding outward so that another autonomous zone may be created in Ukraine, under Russian control.   Maskirovka.  Invasion disguised as peacekeeping.