Ukraine crisis deepens after U.K. says Russia may try to install a pro-Kremlin leader

Cause the British and US governments have never done something like that to a country. *sarcasm*

PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
...""This is very much part of the Russian toolkit," U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on CNN's State of the Union on Sunday. "It runs the gamut from a large, conventional incursion or invasion of Ukraine to these kind of destabilizing activities in an attempt to topple the government, and it's important that people be on notice about that possibility."

Russia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs called the allegations "disinformation" and "nonsense" in a tweet on Saturday and said it was another example of Western nations escalating tensions around Ukraine.

Andrea Kendall-Taylor, a fellow at the Center for a New American Security and a former senior intelligence officer, told NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday that it's fair to question the details of the U.K. report, but that interfering in Ukraine's government is consistent with what Russia appears to want to accomplish in the region.

"What Russia wants is to have some autonomy in the East that would give Russia a veto over Ukraine's foreign policy, and they're looking for a guarantee that Ukraine will not join NATO," Kendall-Taylor said. Doing so would likely require toppling the government of Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky government, she said, "and/or securing a demanding military position that can help Russia extract those demands from Kyiv and the United States and NATO."

Last week the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned four Ukrainians, including two sitting members of parliament, for engaging in "Russian government-directed influence activities to destabilize Ukraine."

Just a 100,000 troop exercise, ya sure!