Ukraine plays dirty again

 

“ Already, the Ukrainian government had cut off pensions for all those living inside the rebel-held zone, stopped paying public service salaries and sharply increased the inspection of shipments coming in and out of the area — to the point that humanitarian groups have complained that it was affecting crucial relief shipments

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Anyone making the trip from rebel-held territory to Ukraine proper   to get money from a  Ukrainian bank account, where the  A.T.M.s are no longer functioning in Donetsk is now impossible.  The Ukrainian Nazis  authorities are now doing all they can to punish their own  Ukrainian citizens living in a rebel areas,  by halting cross-border movement, deploying the full force of   bureaucracy on the more than three million people living in the Ukrainian rebel-held areas. The Ukrainian government put in place new border restrictions in recent days — requiring a special pass that is difficult, if not impossible, to obtain — a deliberate policy of isolating and frustrating rebel-held regions. There is no banking system in the rebel areas, it is an all-cash economy. Residents on the Ukrainian side who want to get into rebel areas must apply at one of a handful of remote police stations and then wait 10 days. .” A woman taking applications said : “  Every day many people come here, they cry and beg me that they need the pass. But I refuse all of them!”  All  applicants  who try to circumvent the official checkpoints, by using secondary roads, they will be treated as potentially hostile targets.. The traffic between the parts of Ukraine controlled by rebels and those controlled by Kiev has dropped by almost 90 percent since the new passes went into effect

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The chances of a peaceful solution to the separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine are waning and poses the biggest security threat to Europe since the end of the Cold War, Poland’s defense minister has said.

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A Russian envoy told European security officials  that a “big catastrophe” is looming in Ukraine if the West doesn’t back down from its support of Kiev. “I would like to appeal to the representatives of countries that have influence on Ukraine’s leadership, most of all to Washington: It’s time to stop indulging Ukraine’s ‘party of war,”’ Andrei Kelin told members of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. “Only a big catastrophe can result from this if developments continue to evolve in [the current] direction.”

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The economic sanctions aren’t deterring Russian President Vladimir Putin or his support for separatist forces battling Kiev in eastern Ukraine.   https://putin1hero.wordpress.com/2015/01/25/how-effective-are-the-trade-embargos-against-russia/

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U.S. soldiers will deploy to Ukraine in the spring and begin training four companies of the Ukrainian National Guard, but that is just the latest initiative as the U.S. continues to beef up its presence in response to the conflict in eastern Ukraine. The US Army still plans to add 100 armored vehicles to Europe, and in March will send in the neighborhood of 3,000 soldiers from the 1st Brigade of the 3rd Infantry Division to multiple European countries.  The U.S. has stepped up its training exercises in a number of other countries bordering Russia and the Black Sea, from Estonia through Bulgaria.

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Moscow has more at stake than the West in Ukraine. Ukraine is essential for Rusia’s defense line. And NATO knew that when it started this war. Ukraine matters far more to Moscow than to Washington.

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Adding Ukraine to NATO would dramatically turn   into a military dispute between America and Russia. American Military victory is unlikely.

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Ukraine and the West should have known from the start that Russia would be no pushover. In particular, Moscow has a full range of nuclear weapons, which it could use to respond to allied conventional superiority.  Going to war with Moscow would offer no benefits to anyone.

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By giving  “a balanced picture” by offering a “factually, historically correct” account of the Russian perspective on Ukraine. That doesn’t make me Anti-American or Anti -Canadian.   https://putin1hero.wordpress.com/2015/01/01/free-speech-is-all-of-our-rights-too/

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