Linton P. Gordon
The ongoing crisis in Ukraine has inflicted on the citizens of that country a tragedy for which they were not prepared and which is primarily the doing of leaders who are still in a Cold War mode. The Ukrainian crisis commenced in November 2013 when the duly elected President Viktor Yanukovych failed to hastily go along with those who were demanding that Ukraine should sign on to become a member of the European Union.
It must be noted that there was ambivalence amongst existing members of the European Union as Ukraine, with its forty eight (48) million people and per capita income of about US$5,000, was seen as a likely liability to the European Union. The United Kingdom, in particular, had and has been expressing concern about the growing number of citizens from poorer states coming to live and work in that country. Pro-European Union citizens in Ukraine commenced demonstrating against the president Viktor Yanukovych. They demanded his resignation and when he refused to resign they commenced invading Government offices, burning of Government buildings and some of them armed themselves with various weapons, including firearms and commenced attacking arms of the State including the police. They succeeded in forcing President Viktor Yanukovych out of office and thereafter installed Oleksandr Turchynor as President of Ukraine and Arseniy Yatsenyuk as Prime Minister. During these demonstrations, representatives of the European Union cautioned against these widespread violent demonstrations and urged restraint. These demonstrations were mainly in Kiev the capital. The citizens of Eastern Ukraine were not in support of joining the European Union and they never took part in the demonstrations.
The USA intervened and meddled in the matter. The USA openly supported the demonstrations. They gave financial, technical and propaganda support to the demonstrators. And when representative of the Europeans Union were hesitant, an American female diplomat used expletives to describe their failure to be more aggressive. In the result, the democratically elected President was overthrown and was forced to flee from his country. The new Government which achieved power by illegal means was not only promptly recognised by the European Union and the USA but the Prime Minister was quickly invited to the White House by President Obama.
The citizens in Eastern Ukraine refused to recognise the Government that came to power in Kiev by coup. In the case of Crimea, the citizens voted to sever Crimea from Ukraine and to join Russia. This was accepted and approved by President Putin and Crimea is now a part of Russia.
It should be noted for the record that historically Crimea was a part of Russia. It was connected to Ukraine for administrative purposes when both Russia and Ukraine were part of the Soviet Union. There are now widespread demonstrations, violence and confrontations in the Eastern Provinces of Ukraine. The Government has deployed gunship helicopters, warplanes and war tankers against the citizens in the East. However, they remain belligerent and obstinate: they do not want to be part of the Europe Union. President Obama has sent a nominal number of troops to countries adjacent to Ukraine and Russia. He has not stated any intention to attack Russia and there is no doubt that the last thing America will ever do is pick an armed conflict with Russia. Both Russia and USA have sufficient weapons in their nuclear arsenal to not only destroy each other but to destroy the world as we know it.
The vast majority of citizens in Europe are against America coming into Europe and to start any armed conflict in their backyard. The French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius has stated that the European Union should “…rule out going to war with Russia…”
We should watch and carefully monitor the situation in Europe and in Ukraine in particular because any armed conflict, far away as it might be, is bound to have repercussions throughout the world and of course that includes here in Jamaica.
