Wednesday, February 19, 2014
Sochi Visitors Should Wear the Black Armbands that the IOC Has Told Ukrainian Athletes not to Wear
Events in Kiev are escalating and moving rapidly today. AP has reported that Ukraine's top security agency says protesters have seized over 1,500 firearms, and is announcing a nationwide "anti-terrorist" operation to restore order. President Yanukovich has again blamed the violence on "radical and extremist groups" that "threaten the lives of millions of Ukrainians." The latest news is that Maidan protesters tried to attack Parliament Tuesday evening to demand action on their list of grievances. They were forced back to Independence Square and were later stormed by riot police who set fire to their headquarters. But the Maidan drove the police out of the Square and set up burning barricades of wood, furniture and tires. As smoke rose above the center of the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, today police fired stun grenades and officers in riot gear again tried to push demonstrators away from the Square. The deadly clashes between police and protesters have left at least 25 people dead and hundreds injured and raised fears of a civil war. Wounded protesters are being taken to St. Michael's Cathedral where doctors have set up an emergency clinic and operating room. After several hours of relative calm, confrontations flared up again Wednesday afternoon, with hundreds of police amassing on the edges of Independence Square, throwing stun grenades and using water cannons to try to disperse protesters. Thousands of activists armed with fire bombs and rocks held their ground, defending the Square which has become the symbol of the Maidan protest. The Kiev Post newspaper reports the following local timeline (GMT + 4) -- 17:06 • Traffic on Ukrainian-Polish border blocked. 16:30 • 'He (Yanukovich) must go': Kiev protesters will fight president. 16:16 • EU still ready to sign association agreement with Ukraine. 16:15 • Weapons, ammunition stolen from Ukrainian Security. 16:02 • Huffington Post: EU Foreign Ministers to meet on Ukraine. 15:41 • About 100 masked men assault pro-European demonstration. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) has reported that Russia is withholding further aid payments to Ukraine amid a "coup" attempt. The deadly clashes in Kiev have also drawn sharp reactions from Washington, sparked a rapidly growing push for European Union sanctions and led to a Kremlin statement blaming Europe and the West. Here are some of the international reactions -- EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso on Wednesday expressed "shock and utter dismay" at the violence in Kiev, blamed Ukraine's "political leadership" and predicted the 28-nation EU will impose sanctions as a result. "We therefore expect that targeted measures against those responsible for violence and use of excessive force can be agreed by our member states as a matter of urgency, as proposed by the high representative/vice president (top EU diplomat Catherine Ashton)," Barroso said in a statement. EU foreign ministers were summoned to an emergency meeting in Brussels on Thursday afternoon to decide on the bloc's course of action on Ukraine. United States Vice President Joe Biden called Ukraine's President Yanukovich, to express "grave concern" and to request the pullback of government forces and the exercise of maximum restraint. The White House said Biden made clear that while the United States condemns violence by all parties, the government bears "special responsibility to de-escalate the situation." Biden also called on Ukraine's government to address the protesters "legitimate grievances" and put forward proposals for political reform. The Russian Foreign Ministry blamed the West for the escalation of violence and called on the Ukrainian opposition to work with the government to find an exit from the crisis. "What is happening is a direct result of the conniving politics of Western politicians and European bodies," the ministry said in a statement. Germany's leaders had refused to back Washington's calls for sanctions against Ukraine's government to pressure it into accepting opposition demands for reforms. But on Wednesday, a senior lawmaker with Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative party, Andreas Schockenhoff, said EU-wide measures such as the freezing of bank accounts and entry bans had become necessary. Schockenhoff also said "Yanukovich clearly bears responsibility for the escalation of violence." A statement issued by Germany's Foreign Ministry Wednesday, however, did not mention sanctions. It quoted Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier as calling the outbreak of violence "appalling" and the high number of victims "terrible." Steinmeier said that "a pause for breath is urgently needed" and called on all concerned not to use force. ~~~~~ Dear readers, right now, riot police are massing near Independence Square while protesters are making petrol fire bombs and Kiev supporters are delivering sandwiches and other food to them. The situation is rapidly escalating and bears the marks of a civil war scenario. Once again, the smiling Sochi face of Vladimir Putin hides his bloody determination to hold into Ukraine at any cost. This is not a battle between the West and Russia. It is the battle of western-style Ukrainian citizens against their pro-Russia government and that government's sellout to Putin. We acknowledge that the half of Ukraine closest to Russia contains Russian sympathizers - the descendents of the Soviet-era packing of eastern Ukraine with Russians. They still speak Russian and not Ukrainian. Yanukovich is close to them and a native Russian speaker. This is not to say that they do not have rights. But their rights do not include suppressing the will of the Urkainian-speaking majority. We witnessed a similar "packing" with Germans by Nazi Germany in eastern Czechoslovakia before it was seized and its native inhabitants terrorized by the Nazis. Ukraine must not be abandoned to such a fate today at the vicious hands of Vladimir Putin. Any sanctions imposed by the EU must also be directed at Russia and Putin, where they will have an impact. Sanctions against Yanukovich and his cronies are useless. And in an Olympic aside - the IOC today refused to allow Ukrainian athletes to wear black armbands. Perhaps spectators ought to wear them for the muzzled Ukrainians at Sochi.
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Where are we if the major political players (ie: Russia, EU, USA, Germany, etc.) cannot get the Ukraine players all lined up in the correct columns. After all folks there are 2 groups and therefore 2 columns. This isn't Brain Surgery is it.
ReplyDeleteIf we don't understand the problem (and it seems we don't or even understand the players), then we will never understand the solution when it comes to the surface.
This about to be (if Russia allows it to go that far) civil war is a cause of the revolting that is occurring in the Middle East. Not a direct cause, but a mental connection to the extent that ..."if they can rebel, we can too".
What have we allowed to start and continue without any serious effort to halt?
Well a few minutes ago Fox news announced that the Government & the "protesters" have reached a Cease Fire.
ReplyDeleteIf it last for 2 weeks there may by an outside chance that some progress away from a full blown Civil war can be adverted.
But again this is a Ukraine problem and the burden of making this work lies with the 2 Ukrainian sides - No One Else.
The critical time for Ukraine , the "truce", the health and well being of the demonstrating citizens I believe will when the Olympics are completed, and everyone is home.
ReplyDeleteThen it will be double dealing politics Putin style. He is very good at what he does, and his speed at doing it is his advantage. This will be hard core Russian politics.
I hope we are not observing another Syria. but the similarities are there my friends.
Democratically elected leaders become illegitimate tyrants the moment they turn against the people who elected them. Yanukovych abandoned whatever minimal claims to legitimacy he may have had back in 2010. The amazing thing is that Ukrainians actually hoped against hope for three years before deciding that the man had to go.
ReplyDeleteYanukovych claims that he is Ukraine’s legitimate president, that the protesters reject the constitutional solutions that he, the supposed moderate, supports, and that they are responsible for the violence. Don’t believe him for a second.
For three years, the democratic opposition has been pleading with Yanukovych to adhere to Ukraine’s Constitution. To no avail he’s violated it at whim. For three months now, ever since the protests in Kyiv began in late November, the protesters have pleaded with him to talk, to compromise, to acknowledge their existence and the legitimacy of their demands. To no avail Yanukovych’s only response has been violence: beatings, killings, fire-bombings, and disappearances. The massive violence of February 18th is just the logical conclusion of the daily violence he’s engaged in since November.
In declaring war on Ukrainians, Yanukovych has sealed his own fate. He thinks he’s reestablishing control. In reality, the violence is an act of desperation that will only hasten his downfall.
What Yanukovych doesn’t understand—and has never understood—is that you can’t stop millions of people from wanting to live freely and in dignity. Eventually the people will win.
Maybe the Free World ought to wear a black armband...
ReplyDeleteI don't know what to make of Mr. Obama's statement made today in Mexico about another "Red Line in the Sand". It bothers me from both a political and a rational point of view. This is not an American crisis. And it will not have an American solution.
ReplyDeleteMore than likely it will have a very visible Russian tint in the final solution.
With Obama we are not in a position to help decide the fate of any country
So the “truce” lasted (if it ever got into place) a couple hours until the atmosphere of mistrust and suspicious between the combating factions took over and the fight was on again. The protesters believed that the “truce’ was a ploy and they started an advance on police lines. The government police was ordered to shoot back and … at least 22 more dead.
ReplyDeleteWhen there has been no trust and honesty towards a deceitful leadership, it is nearly impossible to suddenly lay down your arms and fall lock step in with those you hours before were killing. Without the presence of some form of overseeing and establishing the “truce” both sides will continue to explode at each other’s over the most miniscule happening.
This is a joke of the world’s leadership, not of the Ukraine. They want change. And a press release about a “truce” is not change. Where is the peacekeeping United Nations at? – busy in CAR I suppose.
This is FAR from over folks.
“The Faster I Run – The Behinder I get” … alas do the job correctly instead of doing the job many times.
”President Obama warned all sides in the deadly Ukrainian conflict Wednesday that “there will be consequences if people step over the line”
ReplyDeleteWhere in the world does Obama get off threating anyone that is not a direct threat to the safety and welfare of the United States and its citizens? He makes some off the wall threat (one he never plans on backing up with action), flexes muscles he doesn’t have in this case, feels good about his paper actions, and goes off to Mexico to ponder his next move about make believe action on immigration and NAFTA.
He has lied, glad handed, and categorical blundered (when action was called for) throughout his presidency that he has NO believability left, and therefore neither does the US. And yet now when positive action and policy is most needed towards the explosive situation in Ukraine, President Obama is throwing around “playground” type of charges at everyone in one fell swoop. Now there is decesive, well planned foreign policy via the Obama-Kerry team.