Western media may not be paying much attention now to Ukraine, but this does not mean that the conflict there has been frozen, much less settled. The ceasefire concluded in February 2015 has not held, and the frontline has seen incessant fighting. Moscow continues to undermine Kyiv and plans for far more aggressive measures in the future.
Russia has not relinquished its goal of maintaining some form of control over Ukraine – a central component of its expansionist geopolitical strategy in Eurasia – and has clearly kept open the option of doing so by military means. To that end, Russia has been building up its armed forces along the Ukrainian border, and is in the process of establishing four new divisions: the 150th Motorized Rifle Division in the Rostov region, the 10th Armored Division and the 3rd Mechanized Division in the Voronezh region, and the 144th Motorized Rifle Division near Smolensk. They will be headquartered 50, 45, and 255 kilometers from the border, respectively.
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