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Ukraine without Borders: Should Obama Sanction the UN?

By George Eliason (Page 2 of 4 pages) Become a premium member to see this article and all articles as one long page. 8 comments

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To this day, Ukraine, like Belarus, has not finished the basic delimiting, demarcation, and registration process needed to establish borders that are internationally recognized. This limits opportunities for international cooperation, even for beneficial purposes such as anti-narcotic patrols and anti-smuggling operations.

Ukraine is also currently withdrawing from the original CIS Treaty with Russia, which set the terms of the borders it could establish. Yeltsin's view of the CIS document was that "Russia guarantees the preservation of Ukraine's territorial integrity and the defense of its borders"within the framework of the CIS."

The second and more important borders treaty, the Friendship Treaty signed in 1997, is renewed every 10 years. But, if the current political climate persists, it is difficult to imagine that Kiev will want to renew the treaty. After all, acording to former Ukrainian president Yulia Tymoshenko, "It doesn't matter who wins the [next] presidential election. We all hate Russia. We all win!"

Why Would Ukraine Purposely Not Define Its borders?

Three years before the Friendship Treaty was ratified, a lot of political white papers were written on possible outcomes. Most were not favorable to Russia. Across the board, there was general agreement that Russia would be unwilling to invade Ukraine because of the costs of such an action and the economic drain of maintaining an occupation there. At the time, Russia was in fact providing natural gas and financial credit to the struggling nation. Most of the papers dismissing a Russian threat were written by, or for, the same governments that materially supported the 2014 Maidan revolution. It's a pity those people don't seem to read.

In 1994, one such paper actually foresaw a scenario in which Ukraine would deliberately make Russia belligerent enough to attack Ukraine. This scenario is strikingly predictive of what we are seeing in 2014 as a result of Euro-Maidan.

"Although the possibility of war is not as far-fetched as one would like it to be, it would not work to Ukraine's disadvantage. Indeed, the emergence of a genuinely hostile Russia would translate into Ukraine's rapid integration into European economic and security structures and its concomitant transformation into a client state of the United States. As an East European version of South Korea, Ukraine would become the recipient of large-scale Western--in particular, American--military and economic assistance that would guarantee its stability, if not its prosperity.... Russia's aggressiveness, therefore, could be Ukraine's salvation . " [See Alexander J. Motyl, "Will Ukraine Survive 1994?" in the Harriman Institute Forum, Vol. 7, No. 5 (January 1994), p. 4.]

The current situation in Ukraine has in fact been building up over 20 years, with the stripping of the wealth of the country and the promotion of Ultra Nationalist ideology. The south-east region of Ukraine has been kept its poorest, though it is the country's industrial heartland and its large ethnic Russian population effectively supports the whole of Ukraine. The scenario posed in the 1994 white paper is now playing out before our very eyes. The one great value Ultra Nationalist Ukraine has to the U.S. and the EU is its rabid hatred of Russia, and the damage the junta will try to cause it.

For 70 years the prospect of a Nazi Ukraine has existed in the hearts and minds of one percent of a population that now numbers 45 million people. Creating such a state has been the dream of a hopeful Russophobic government in exile with members both in the US and Canada .

Yesterday, the only viable politician from the south-east of Ukraine was beaten half to death by Pravy Sektor militants while leaving an interview at a news station. Today, Maidan loyalists have chanted "to the ovens" and "knives to the Moskal" while throwing flour and eggs at referendum protesters to make the batter for the oven and the point of what kind of treatment they can expect.

In real terms, the cost of this conflict to Americans is growing exponentially day by day. I will be blunt. Your dollars are fueling the ovens the Ultra Nationalists want to throw normal people into. As I write this, the order has been given, and tanks and artillery will be close by soon. The hand of America is on the switch that will soon turn a genocide loose.

In funding these developments, the U.S. has bought into the notion of protecting the territorial integrity of a country without recognized borders. In doing so, it is supporting a Nazi state that has never existed here before. As a result, American citizens will now have to bear the cost of re-building the entire country from scratch through their tax dollars. Here is a rundown of some of the things your tax dollars will pay for:

Ukraine: America's New Welfare State and National Security Risk

The map overlay shows the relative size of Ukraine to the whole of the continental U.S. It is comparable in size to Texas. This is an important fact to keep in mind, because the U.S. is now taking financial and security responsibility for Ukraine. President Putin sent an open letter to EU countries yesterday, explaining the value of gas credits Russia has provided Ukraine recently. Gas-Prom is the Russian company that supplies natural gas to both Ukraine and Europe. Ukraine itself owes $2.2 billion dollars on its delivery of natural gas in the last few months.

State Department spokesperson Jen Ptaki, who wasn't sent the letter, was the first to respond to it--in case that makes a point about responsible parties. In her briefing, Ptaki started taking Russia to task for the price per cubic meter of natural gas. A reporter questioned her right to set prices for Russia. So, again, the U.S. government is taking responsibility. Russia's response to Ptaki was that it's "not polite to read other people's mail, or snoop or peep. This letter was sent to our EU partners." With the payment history Ukraine has, Russia wants them to prepay from now on.

Since its independence 20 years ago, Ukraine has been the third largest recipient of U.S. foreign aid, behind only Israel and Egypt.

Ukraine's entire infrastructure needs to be rebuilt. Imagine rebuilding all the roads in Texas at once, so they are drivable and up to EU standards. You can imagine what your individual share of the cost would be. And let's not forget the "reverse" gas pipes from Europe. The electrical power grid across Ukraine is antiquated. What would it cost to replace the power grid for Texas?

Ukraine also needs a complete overhaul of its military. The country maintains a force of around 450,000 and plans on making it larger. The soldiers need to be paid. The new National Guard, border patrol, and police (with all of its Pravy Sektor members) need to be paid also. To give you an idea of what the U.S. administration is buying into: One of Ukraine's submarines has what looks like a windshield on it. I'm not kidding.

None of this equipment has been maintained or replaced since Soviet times.

And after Mr. McCain, Ms. Nuland, and Mr. Obama can convince their new revolutionary foster kids to stop burning buildings out, Kiev itself needs to be rebuilt. Perhaps between the three of them, they will be gracious enough to put their revolutionaries on their own Obama-Care packages and get their Ritalin prescriptions filled.

And speaking of that, the revolutionaries are angry, because they are convinced the Commandant of Maidan stole their money. They insist they know he was getting a million hryvnia per day, while they themselves were not getting paid.

How could the big shots take all that U.S. aid all these years and still allow this to happen?

According to CIA Director George H.W. Bush in a memo to Brent Scowcroft,

"Perhaps even more alarming for the regime are signs of nationalism among lower strata of the population. A great fear of the central authorities may be that, at some period of great strain for the government... Ukrainian intellectual dissidents could tap a reservoir of latent mass discontent. The Ukrainian dissidents possess a potential weapon their Russian counterparts do not, since in the Ukraine the normal economic grievances of the population may be aggravated by popular resentment of Russian domination."

With all this in mind, the national security question is easy: Can America, which has a real unemployment rate of over 22 percent, according to shadow stats , take responsibility for a country with roughly 45 million people? And, if it does, will there be any incentive for Ukraine to reform?

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George Eliason is an American journalist that lives and works in Donbass. He has been interviewed by and provided analysis for RT, the BBC, and Press-TV. His articles have been published in the Security Assistance Monitor, Washingtons Blog, (more...)

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