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Posted on 02/20/2014 4:13:01 PM PST by Navy Patriot
Ukraine is in the middle of a violent political crisis. Dozens of people died this week and hundreds more were injured as protesters fought police in the capital, Kiev. Lethal violence has been spreading to the rest of the country, and a truce announced early Thursday fell apart as the death toll kept growing.
What began in November as a series of peaceful protests in favor of closer ties with the European Union and greater autonomy from the influence of Russia has escalated into a conflagration.
To save Ukraine, the government and opposition alike must make the difficult but necessary choice to compromise and reconcile. European leaders should immediately schedule direct talks with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and his top officials to find a temporary solution to stop the bloodshed and a longer-term plan that would allow Ukrainians to determine their political destiny in a peaceful and democratic fashion.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Prodi obviously knows nothing about Eastern European history and politics.
Ping
They probably need to divide the country in half: Eastern Ukraine (EU) and Russian Ukraine (RU)...
Make that European Ukraine...
Zero, u paying attention? We have guns, they don’t.
Obama can give another speech. That will take care of the problem over there, just like it did in Libya, Egypt, Iran, Syria, etc
Territory wise, about the Western 20% would do it, then everybody could start up again. At least it would give Yugoslavia company.
Miraculously, Merkel and Putin have arrived to that conclusion already. Weird - they aren't supposed to do such things on their own, not before a widely known in narrow circles Italian politician gives them the order :-)
I wonder if there will be Secret Protocols signed this time around - or the division of Ukraine is to remain just a verbal agreement?
Most of that was part of Poland before the war. The Soviets kicked out the Poles after the war.
The ones that hadn't already been exterminated by the Ukrainian Nazis...
Isn’t it that much symbolic to make Russia and Germany drawing lines there again?
In my humble opinion people of that land has to settle it for themselves.
I don’t care if they are going to kill each other in process. They have to take responsibility for themselves, not to split and hide behind either Germany and Russia who indended to bring ready solutions. It is nothing but a way to lay another time bomb and blame the others for the outcome later.
I honestly believe that Ukraine as a nation-state is a fluke of history. It doesn’t mean the rest of the world has to step in and fix it, because killing deformed babies is not a norm in modern society.
The answer is free trade for Ukraine. They should be the Singapore or Swiss style middleman between Europe and Russia and become fabulously wealthy. Europe and Russia both have raped and mass murdered their way through Ukraine in living memory.
They both need to pay the price.
And of course, there should be no change in the military position. NATO basing in Ukraine is unwelcome and not needed anyway. That’d blow any chance for a decent outcome.
And are we really, actually, ever considering a land war over there ?
Best proposal yet.
Several FReepers have pointed out that present day Ukraine is a forced construction of tribes rather than a nation.
You oughta give credit to our beloved FDR and Churchill for agreeing to Stalin’s redrawn map at Yalta.
Yep. We are still living the consequences of Lincoln freeing the slaves.
Although it was a noble thing to do, we would be far better off if they had freed themselves. (Well, the survivors would be anyway)
Deep in the psyche of the former slaves and their descendants there can't help but be a hint of insecurity: "Our freedom was given to us by the stroke of a pen, it could be taken away just as easily." I've got a pen and I've got a phone...
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