Putin's Saber-Rattling Over Ukraine Threatens Peace In Europe

Europe has a long and bloody history of wars, of borders brutally contested, of nations and empires carving destructive furrows far from home. But a sad harvest of sorrow and loss after World War II was followed by decades of relative peace and prosperity, even during a Cold War that did not become hot, Nic Robertson reported for CNN.

Photo Insert: Last summer in a 20-page document citing centuries of blood-spattered history, Putin laid claim to Ukraine, which in 1991 regained its independence following the Soviet Union's collapse.

Today that peace is being severely tested by Russian President Vladimir Putin as he masses troops on Ukraine's border and diplomats are raising the alarm in stark terms.

The US ambassador to the 57 nation, globe-straddling Organization for Cooperation and Security in Europe (OSCE), Michael Carpenter, warned on Thursday that European security is facing a "crisis" and "the drumbeat of war is sounding loud."

Putin, whose nation buried tens of millions of its own in European wars, is unearthing fresh grievances about the post-World War peace, specifically the role of NATO, the transatlantic defensive alliance and counterpoint to Russia's predecessor, the Soviet Union.

Last summer in a 20-page document citing centuries of blood-spattered history, Putin laid claim to Ukraine, which in 1991 regained its independence following the Soviet Union's collapse, stating "Russians, Ukrainians, and Belarusians are all descendants of Ancient Rus, which was the largest state in Europe." His action violates the Budapest Agreement, which bound Russia to respect the territorial integrity of Ukraine.

In the US, President Joe Biden's national security adviser Jake Sullivan on Thursday suggested Putin may have given up on talks with none scheduled in the days ahead, and on Friday the US raised the stakes further, charging that Moscow had "prepositioned a group of operatives" to execute "an operation designed to look like an attack on them or Russian-speaking people in Ukraine" to create a reason for "a potential invasion," according to Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby.

The Kremlin strenuously denied the accusation.

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