Moscow likens eastern Ukraine to Srebrenica!

The Russian troop and tank build-up on the Ukrainian border is continuing and still no one really knows what Vladimir Putin has in mind. Is he plotting an invasion, just sabre-rattling or engaging in an alarmist training exercise to put the frigteners on the Kiev/Kyiv government? Suddenly thanks to a senior Russian official there is a glimmer of light about what this is all about and it's bizarre. Dmitry Kozak, deputy head of Russia's presidential administration, for which read, Kremlin, has indicated Moscow is worried about a Srebrenica situation occurring in eastern Ukraine. Srebrenica, the name for ever assciated with the massacre of 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys by the Serb army in the ethnic-cleansing Balkan war in July 1995. Kozak suggests that Russian nationals in the Donbass region in eastern Ukraine are being threatened and could need rescuing. It's the classic justification for a Russian invasion. It has been used before, as in the case of the two provinces in Georgia which Russian troops were sent to occupy to protect nationals in 2008. Putin will be making careful calculations. There is no evidence of any sort of massacre intent against Russians living in Donbass, although I have no doubt there is ill-feeling between Russians and Ukrainians in an area where there has been a de facto war going on for years. The reference to Srebrenica is deliberately provocative. With the world, especially the US, watching, I doubt Putin will pick this moment to mount a huge challenge to Joe Biden. But if there is even a hint of Russians in Donbass being attacked/killed by Ukrainian government forces, Putin could launch some military operation. Sounds like some heavyweight diplomatic efforts are required. Whether Putin listens or not depends on the support he thinks he has from the Putin-wary/weary Russian population. I'd say it's 60-40 against a Russian invasion.