BATTLE FOR WORLD / RT - December 22, 2018: The article highlights that Trump’s abrupt call for US troops to leave Syria is being lambasted by his domestic critics as “a gift to Russia.” The paradox is that peace signals on Syria could bode sharper conflict with Russia in Ukraine. Hardly a gift.

President Trump’s announcement via Twitter of a military pullout from Syria is best understood as a superficial political move.

The subsequent prompt resignation by his Defense Secretary James Mattis – within hours of Trump’s declared withdrawal – shows the president is deeply at odds with the Pentagon. Military officials say they were blindsided by Trump. Mattis’ resignation, therefore, came as a rebuke.

Earlier this week (third week in December), Kurt Volker, the Trump administration’s envoy to Ukraine, told a forum in Brussels that $250 million worth of military equipment was on its way to the US-backed regime in Kiev.

That latest installment is in addition to the $1 billion of military assistance Washington has provided the Kiev regime since it seized power in February 2014 with the US-backed coup. It was the Trump administration that broke new ground from former president Obama when it signed off on $47 million in “lethal military supply” to the Kiev regime this year in the form of anti-tank javelin missiles.

Also this week (third week in December), some 41 US senators signed a resolution calling for “freedom of navigation” exercises in the Black Sea and for more lethal military assistance “to defend Ukraine from Russian aggression”.

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has warned that the US and other NATO powers are coaching the Kiev regime to instigate provocations against Russia for the purpose of providing a pretext to hit Moscow with further sanctions.

There are serious portents that the Kiev regime is planning to launch more provocations against Russia in the same vein as the Kerch Strait incident on November 25. A senior Kiev official, Alexander Turchinov, almost bragged to the BBC this week that more naval incursions were imminent. He also indicated that NATO vessels could be joining future Ukrainian attempted forays through the Kerch Strait.

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