Commemorating 25 years since the collapse of the Soviet Union, 50-year-old Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko continued the divisive rhetoric, warning Ukrainians of a new Russian invasion. Sworn into office June 7, 2014, the once billionaire chocolate baron came to power after a Feb. 22, 2014 pro-Western coup, led by former heavyweight champion Vitali Klitchko, toppled the Kremlin-backed government of Viktor Yanukovich. While Russian President Vladimir Putin watched helplessly hosting the Sochi Winter Olympics, a CIA-backed pro-Western coup drove Yanukovich out of Kiev. Instead of extending an olive branch to Putin, Poroshenko accuses the Russian Federation of encroachment in the Donbass region of Southeastern Ukaine. With some 9,500 deaths and 2 million more displaced from their homes, Ukrainians have never been worse off.
Poroshenko blames pro-Russian separatists and Russian forces for dividing Ukraine into pro-Kiev or pro-Moscow parts. Poroshenko hoped the Sept. 5, 2014 Minsk I and Feb. 11, 2015 Minsk II agreements would resolve remaining issues over Crimea and the Donetsk and Luhansk region in Southeastern Ukraine. Pro-Russian separatists want to repatriate with Russia, once a satellite before 1991 of the Soviet Union. Poroshenko continues to blame Putin for meddling into more sovereign Ukrainian territory, when, in fact, it has more to do with a failed central government, unable to extend law-and-order to pro-Russian parts of the country. Poroshenko wants to blame Putin but the discontent of pro-Russian Ukrainians stems directly from Poroshenko’s inability to manage parts of Ukraine outside Kiev. Poroshenko must look beyond Minsk I & II to find peace.
Celebrating the 25-year anniversary of independence from the Soviet Union, National Remembrance Day Chief Volodymyr Vyatrovych said Wednesday’s Independence Day holiday commemorates Ukrainian’s wish “to get rid of the totalitarian past,” referring to the old Soviet Union. Yet in Crimea and the Donbass region, pro-Russian separatists seek to reunite with Russia, or, at the very least, win autonomy from Kiev. Recent polling by the Kiev-based Democratic Initiatives Foundation showed that 61% of Ukrainians think “healthy nationalism is what the country needs,” rejecting the separatist movement seeking to join the Russian Federation. Ukrainians living in Bakhmut, once known as Artyom in Soviet days, in Eastern Donetsk watched the Kiev-based government destroy old Soviet monuments. “People are pretty unhappy,” said Bakhumut city council member Artur Radikovskly.
Porshenko’s real problems stems from his unwillingness to accept that the Donbass region no longer wants to be ruled by pro-Western forces in Kiev. “If only the demolition of monuments made life any better,” said Radikkovskly, looking for jobs, not more rhetoric from Poroshenko. During the height of Feb. 22, 2014 coup, former heavyweight boxer Vitali Kltitschko pleaded with the U.S. and European Union provide military backing to Ukaine. Kiev officials, led by Prime Minster Arsenly Yatsenyuk begged the U.S. and EU to defend Ukraine, the same request made Aug. 7, 2006 by former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili in response to Putin’s invasion of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. No one in the West seeks a military confrontation with the Russian Federation, something not wanted today in Ukraine. Poroshenko has no leg to stand on threatening war with Russia.
President Barack Obama has made matters worse in Ukraine fighting Putin on Syria, where the U.S. government, together with Saudi Arabia and Turkey, seek to topple Bashar al-Assad. If Obama had a coherent Syrian policy, he’d have the rapport needed with Putin to deal with problems facing Ukraine and other parts of globe. Rubber-stamping the Saudi proxy war against al-Assad, Obama has plunged U.S.-Russian relations to the lowest level since the Cold War. Neither Obama nor his Secretary of State John Kerry can explain why they back the Saudis, tossing 60 years of U.S.- Russian relations out the window. If Poroshenko complains about Ukrainian-Russian relations, he’s the primary architect of pitting the West against Russia. Instead of looking for U.S. or EU to bail out Ukraine, he should be sitting down with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and finding a way forward.
After deciding to topple the duly elected government of Viktor Yanukovich Feb. 22, Poroshenko needs to come to grips with the fact that his government lacks legitimacy. Elected May 25, 2014 by voters primarily from Kiev, Poroshenko lacks the popular mandate across pro-Russian regions of Ukraine. Instead of accepting his limited mandate, Poroshenko has committed what’s left of Ukrainian military to defend a splintered country. Instead of battling pro-Russian forces in the separatist Donbass region, Poroshenko should have sat down with Putin and Lavrov and figured out a way forward. It’s not a way forward to pull the U.S. and EU into a shooting war with Russia because Poroshenko can’t figure out how to make his government work for all Ukrainians. Poroshenko needs to stop asking the West to bail him out and figure out a way to compromise with Russia.
