Canada and Russia trade Twitter barbs over maps
As more evidence mounts of Russian forces entering Ukraine, the NATO delegation from Canada has tweeted an unsolicited geography lesson to Russian troops:
Geography can be tough. Here’s a guide for Russian soldiers who keep getting lost & ‘accidentally’ entering #Ukraine pic.twitter.com/RF3H4IXGSp
— Canada at NATO (@CanadaNATO) August 27, 2014
The tongue-in-cheek tweet came after Ukraine captured 10 soldiers from a Russian paratrooper division earlier this week in Ukrainian territory. The soldiers claimed they had accidentally crossed the border because it was "poorly marked," according to The Daily Mail.
The tweet sent from the official account listed on Canada's department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development has been retweeted more than 25,000 times, including by Samantha Power, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
It's worth noting that the area labeled "NOT RUSSIA" includes Crimea, which was annexed by Moscow earlier this year.
And that's what the Russians pointed out when they tweeted their own map:
Helping our Canadian colleagues to catch up with contemporary geography of #Europe @CanadaNATO pic.twitter.com/MjzRxpFFfN
— Russians at NATO (@natomission_ru) August 28, 2014
The West does not recognize Russia's absorption of Crimea as legal, and Ukraine has worried for months that the annexation of the peninsula was only the start of a bigger offensive.
Those fears appeared justified Thursday after a top NATO official said that at least 1,000 Russian troops have poured into Ukraine, leaving no doubt that the Russian military had invaded southeastern Ukraine.