Ukraine's
New Interior Minister Promises To Retake Crimea From Russia
3
June, 2014
The
civil war in east Ukraine - the self-proclaimed republic of
Novorossiya - is back on and raging as violently as ever, with
unconfirmed reports that even Russia has now gotten involved:
This
follows what BBC
reported was
the death of at least nine civilians during an attack on a village in
the Luhansk region of eastern Ukraine. "The rebels have accused
the Ukrainian army of shelling and bombing the village of Luhanska.
But Ukrainian officials said their forces were not in the area,
blaming the rebels themselves."
In
other words more of the same, and certainly not helping any attempts
at peace or even a ceasefire, as Russia and Ukraine are again stuck
accusing each other of scuttling all attempts at ending hostilities.
As Reuters noted, in a telephone conversation with U.S. Vice
President Joe Biden, Poroshenko repeated a promise that Kiev could
return to the ceasefire, on three conditions. "A statement on
his website said he wanted assurances on a 'bilateral' truce, the
release of hostages, and the deployment of international monitors to
check Ukraine's porous border with Russia. Moscow denies Ukraine's
charges that it is letting fighters and weapons cross into the east
of the country."
Curiously,
besides Putin benefiting from higher oil prices as a result of
geopolitical instability, and a far better venue to achieve that
nowadays would be Iraq anyway, one wonders who actually has more to
gain from perpetuating the fighting.
Yet
the most surprising news of the day comes not from the contested
region, but from Kiev where Ukraine's president Poroshenko appointed
a new Ukraine defense minister, Valeriy Heletey. His first promise?
To not only re-engage Russia in Crimea, but to be victorious in doing
so. From BBC:
New Ukrainian Defence Minister Valeriy Heletey has promised that the army would retake Crimea, restoring the country's territorial integrity.
Addressing parliament in Kiev, he said: "There will be a victory parade... in Ukraine's Sevastopol."
Lt Gen Heletey, 46, was approved by MPs in Kiev after being recommended by Mr Poroshenko as someone who would work day and night to restore the military capability of the country's armed forces. His remark about Sevastopol was applauded by the chamber.
We
are confident Putin had a different, and far more amused reaction to
the statement.
But
while we applaud Ukraine's attempts at generating populist
enthusiasm, a far bigger problem for the nation will be if, as we
explained previously, Russia not only manages to finally conclude the
South Stream, which despite Europe's attempts at sabotage, is
proceeding according to schedule, but diverts all gas transit away
from Ukraine. At that point, Ukraine will be completely irrelevant
not only to Russia, which already has under its control, via
separatist groups, the industrial regions in the east, but to Europe.
It goes without saying that the second Russia makes Ukraine
irrelevant as a core transit hub to Europe, all the promises from
Europe, NATO, IMF and of course, America, will
be gone with the wind.
Only then will Ukraine discover just how credible its newly found
allies are...
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