DANGEROUS GROUND

Russians inspect a house hit my shells from Kiev's military after they fired into Russia on Sunday

• The operative question is can and will the regime in Kiev be able to draw Russia into war?  On Sunday the US-NATO backed regime fired artillery shells over the border into Russia killing one person and injuring a couple other people.  Here is a report from Associated Press:

Russia’s foreign ministry said Sunday that a Ukrainian shell hit a Russian border town, killing one person and seriously injuring two others. Ukraine denied firing a shell into Russian territory.

President Vladimir Putin expressed “grave concern” over the incident, Russian news agencies quoted his spokesman as saying. A statement from Russia’s foreign ministry labeled the event a “provocation,” and warned of the possibility of “irreversible consequences, the responsibility for which lies on the Ukrainian side.”

• Earlier in June two long-range Russian bombers flew within 50 miles of the northern California coast but stayed out of U.S. airspace. CNN reported:

Four long-range Russian Tu-95 Bear-H bombers, accompanied by an aerial refueling tanker, flew into the US Air Defense Identification Zone, an area extending 200 miles from the North American coast, off Alaska, where they were intercepted by US F-22 fighter jets. Two of the Russian bombers peeled off and headed west, while the other two flew south and were identified by US F-15 fighters within 50 miles of the California coast. Capt. Jeff Davis, a spokesman for the North American Aerospace Defense Command, said it was the first time U.S. jets had intercepted Russian military aircraft off California since July 4, 2012.

• It could be that Russia sending bombers near the west coast of the US was a statement and reminder to Washington that it should be careful about the growing tensions and militarization of Ukraine along Russia's western borders. Does Moscow fear the US-NATO want to draw Russia into war? If Russia was to eventually respond to these provocations by Kiev would NATO then use that as pretext for war?
• Long-time peace activist and international law professor Francis Boyle from Illinois writes on this subject:

Obviously, they are trying to provoke Russia to either attack or invade Ukraine. Then they can invoke UN Charter Article 51 the right of collective self-defense to come to Ukraine’s “defense.” So you will see US/NATO forces streaming into Ukraine. Where it will stop I do not know. The Dnieper River? Remember that during the US/NATO war against Serbia over Kosovo, US/NATO General Wesley Clark ordered the British General Mike Jackson to take the Kosovo Airport [which was] under the control of Russian troops. Jackson refused on the grounds that he did not want to set off World War III. So anything is possible here, including a Reverse Cuban Missile Crisis that could go hot.

Interesting video with English subtitles giving the Russian perspective to avoid war if at all possible