On the sidelines of this year’s D-Day commemoration, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart, President-elect Petro Poroshenko (whose inauguration is on Saturday) met to discuss ongoing violence along their common border.
The easternmost Ukrainian oblasts of Donetsk and Luhansk are in a state of effective rebellion, as the ethnic Russian majorities opposed the policies of the interim government preceding Poroshenko. Russia has been calling for a ceasefire and negotiations, while interim officials were pushing for a declaration of martial law and more military action against the region.
Where Poroshenko ultimately ends up on the issue remains to be seen, but he and Putin agreed today to work on a ceasefire, with a Putin aide saying the sides wanted the “soonest possible end” to the fighting.
That’s unlikely to set well with Western nations, which have been cheering the Ukrainian interim government’s military action, while blaming Russia for the ongoing resistance. The western goal appears to be driving Ukraine into the EU sphere of influence by pushing them into a military conflict with Russia.
No one seriously expected Russia to give up their military base that can control the Black sea . The international socialists would be crawling all over Russia harvesting their natural resources in 6 months .
It still remains to be seen whether the Right Sektor and Svoboda parties will accept being sidelined by Poroshenko if he chooses to work with Putin and the ethnic Russian majorities or if they choose to "insist" on their active participation in the quelling of the separatist movement and retaining their portfolio in State Security. This is where the newly elected President shows his true colors – whether he intends to work to unite the Ukrainians or whether he would rather go down in history as the last straw thrown on a global war.
We already know the answer to that (as if we didn't know it before): Poroshenko has already shown his colors, he intensified the military action, so after day one as "president" he already has blood on his hands.
It's not a question of ethnic Russians: virtually nobody in Donbass region speaks Ukrainian, the great majority speaks either proper Russian, or "surzhik", which is a sort of pidgin-Russian with some russified Ukrainian words mixed in. I grew up in Lugansk, and my Ukrainian teacher in school loved me, because I was the only kid in the whole class of 35+ pupils who could speak proper Ukrainian.
The situation in Ukraine might change for the better only when it has a government that does not get its instructions from the US embassy. This is not on the cards in the next few months (or however long Poroshenko lasts before rooftop evacuation).
We already know the answer to that (as if we didn't know it before): Poroshenko has shown his colors, he intensified the military action, so after day one as "president" he already has blood on his hands.
Since Poroshenko gets his orders from the same US embassy as Tourchinov, nothing will change for the better in the next few months, or however long he lasts before rooftop evacuation.
I wonder how much the financial costs are for Ukraine in this "War Against Terrorism™". All this bombast about saving the economy from years of neglect, corruption and so on and what is the first acts of these people? Wage war. That's sure to boost the economy right?
The good news is that Poroshenko seems willing to talk with Russians to resolve the situation without too much more bloodshed. The bad news is that Western "elites" control the purse strings, and seem determined to promote conflict in Ukraine. If they want war, that's what they will have, even if it means replacing Poroshenko, or fomenting another revolution.
There is no good nes: Poroshenko intensified the military action, so after day one as "president" he already has blood on his hands.
Poroshenko gets his orders from the same US embassy as Tourchinov, so nothing will change for the better in the next few months, or however long he lasts before rooftop evacuation.
Poroshenko do not decide himself.Before he was elected CEE was alresdy saying -for him- that he will sign the econiomic part of the agreement end jubne. No referendum about that in Ukraine.IMF will create a second Holodomor.
"Ethnic Russian majority"? Go look in Wikipedia! Putin's problem is that he has painted himself into a corner. Previously, when he talked about a ceasefire, he meant the Ukrainians surrendering and allowing the Russian colonists to seize part of their country. Now that Putin won't annex the area and the Ukraininas are getting the upper hand, they are unlikely to agree to that sort of one-sided ceasefire. Probably, Putin is in fact putting pressure on the rebels, whom he doesn't seem to control, to lay down their arms in return for an amnesty and parliamentary elections, in which the whole population of those provinces can vote under international supervision and without intimidation. Putin committed a monumental blunder when he annexed Crimea and has been trying to back away from it ever since. Pipedreamers in the American cloudcuckooland notwithstanding, Russia and the EU have always been the best of friends and Putin would no doubt like to get back to that as soon as possible. Ukraine entering what Mr Ditz quaintly calls the "EU sphere of influence" would thus no doubt please him very much.