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Missiles in Crimea, threats over Syria's border force
Summary
A look back at 15 January 2018, when Russia's Crimean air defences and a planned US-backed force in Syria drew sharp warnings.
What did Moscow's military posture and a proposed border force in Syria have in common on 15 January 2018? Both fed a day of hardening rhetoric and visible military build-up.
Two days earlier, on 13 January 2018, Russia deployed a second S-400 anti-air missile battalion in Crimea. The peninsula had been invaded and occupied by Russia in February and March 2014, then annexed after a referendum described as illegitimate, amid the uncertainty that followed Ukraine's Revolution of Dignity. That episode marked the beginning of the Russo-Ukrainian war. The new battalion added to Russia's air-defence presence on the peninsula.
Threats over a Syrian force
On 15 January 2018, attention turned to Syria. Turkey threatened to "strangle" the United States-backed Syrian Border Security Force "before it's even born". Damascus, for its part, vowed to crush the force and to expel American military personnel from the country.
Russia also weighed in, calling the plans a plot to dismember Syria.
Two theatres, one pattern
The reports from 13 and 15 January 2018 concerned different places: a Black Sea peninsula that Russia had annexed from Ukraine, and a Syrian civil war in which Turkey, Syria, Russia and the United States all had stakes. In each, a military move or proposal was met with firm statements from the governments concerned.
For Ukraine's neighbours and for readers in Kyiv, the day offered a snapshot of how Russia was positioned: reinforcing its air defences in occupied Crimea while publicly denouncing a US-backed project in Syria.
