Forget Baghdad Bob. Meet Luhansk Lysenko, the spokesman of the Ukraine military, and the guy who every single day floods whatever wires still care with the daily report of fighting, military invasions, and Russian troops entering the country, aka the proverbial boy who cried wolf.
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There was a time when the merest hint of Russia military activity at the Ukraine border would do the unthinkable: challenged central planners and send stocks lower. Who can forget the market drubbing [6]when the Russian humanitarian convoy was going to enter east Ukraine and allegedly carry a DIY army?
Well, those days are long gone. Because with Ukraine repeating day after day after day, how many Russian soliders have entered the country, how many artilery shells have landed, and how Putin is just salivating to invade the economically devastated country, everyone completely tuned out.
Case in point, yet another report earlier [7]today from Kiev, according to which "a column of 32 tanks, 16 howitzer artillery systems and trucks carrying ammunition and fighters has crossed into eastern Ukraine from Russia."
"The deployment continues of military equipment and Russian mercenaries to the front lines," spokesman Andriy Lysenko said in a televised briefing referring to Thursday's cross-border incursion.
The report of a new Russian movement of armor across the border follows a charge on Thursday by pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine that Kiev government forces had launched a new offensive - which Kiev immediately denied.
Sporadic violence has continued since a Sept. 5 truce in a conflict that has cost over 4,000 lives. But the ceasefire has looked particularly fragile this week, with separatists and the central government accusing each other of violations after separatist leaders held elections in self-proclaimed 'people's republics' last Sunday.
"Supplies of military equipment and enemy fighters from the Russian Federation are continuing," Lysenko said. He added that five Ukrainian soldiers had been killed and 16 wounded in the past 24 hours despite the ceasefire.
Market reaction: absolutely none.
Ironically, following half a year of false alarms and crying wolf, if Putin did want to invade Ukraine, he could do so in hours. But why bother, when he can get paid by US and European taxpayers for natural gas deliveries to the nation that appears set to mutiny against the US puppet government within months if not weeks?
