Ukraine government acting on Behalf of West: Analyst

Press TV has interviewed Manuel Ochsenreiter, the editor in chief of Zuerst magazine, to get his take on a decision by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to boost military capabilities in the country’s restive east.

The following is a rough transcription.

Press TV: Now the US initially sent non-lethal aid over to Ukraine, some training, and kept it on the table to actually send weapons to Ukraine. Now we have the Ukrainian president... now this comes after Minsk I and Minsk II in February... heavy weaponry were supposed to be taken out of the frontlines and they actually were for a sustained period of time; there’s sporadic fighting. But now it seems Kiev is only blaming the other side, the pro-Russian militias, of sustaining... or violating the Minsk agreement when UN monitors went and said that both sides have numerously violated the Minsk agreement. How is this contributing to peace, Mr. Poroshenko’s move?

Ochsenreiter: Well, this is a good question. Contributing to peace? It think it is... it would be the very wrong approach to what is happening right now in Kiev. By the way it is interesting because Ukraine, as we see it today, is a failed state. It is like a sick man in a hospital only surviving by the injections and these injections are the financial and military help coming from the West, namely by United States of America and of course the European Union.

The Minsk II agreement, the last agreement, was very clear and the implementation completely lacks. We have violations of the Minsk II agreement especially from the Kiev forces. Because we have to see how the situation is on the ground. We have two different strategic approaches in Ukraine. We have in eastern Ukraine these so-called separatists who are actually defending the country in the east, who have a defensive mission, they are defending. Then we have Kiev, they have an offensive mission. They want to take it back. Petro Poroshenko by the way speaks always in a double way…on the one way he is speaking of course about peace and about agreement on the other side. When he speaks inside Ukraine he says, very clear, we want to take back the eastern parts of Ukraine and as well as Crimea by the way, and this will not be possible in a peaceful way of agreements.

Press TV: Right, but doesn’t this almost guarantee the escalation of situation there. I mean the Donbass, in its comparison to the rest of the country is really a small part of Ukraine. I mean, trying to enhance capabilities up to the point, to get ready for a large-scale offensive which has not happened and probably will not happen. I mean isn’t that a kind of an overkill at this point that almost guarantees that things will escalate in the east.

Ochsenreiter: Well, we have to see the realities. Donbass might be a small part of all Ukraine but at the same time it is the industrial powerhouse of the country. Of course Petro Poroshenko wants to have it back, he wants to have back the taxes to Kiev. He wants to have back the industrial capabilities of Donbass. And it is, for him of course, also a thing of prestige. And we should not forget that Petro Poroshenko and any Kiev government from today, which might come, is not acting on its own behalf, it is acting on behalf of the West. What we find in Ukraine is not a regional conflict, it is not a conflict about democracy or less democracy, or corruption; it is a geopolitical warfare we find there and this is about who will have the influence on Ukraine.

The West tried with the Euromaidan to get to Ukraine; this project failed. It turned out in a war and this is now the war we are in the middle. There is the last word not spoken and we can expect... this is now a desperate view on the conflict. We can expect again escalations. As long [as] there is no agreement which says very clearly how the future order of the spot and the map will look like, the eastern Ukrainians are not willing anymore to go back before the times of the Euromaidan; for them it is very important that they can keep the self-determination they were fighting for and they will not give it to Kiev without fighting.

MTM/MKA

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