Obama phones Putin as Ukraine on brink
Source: CNN
Washington (CNN)President Barack Obama urged his Russian counterpart on Tuesday to accept the diplomatic peace plan for Ukraine that European leaders will present Wednesday in Belarus.
The White House said Obama underscored to Russian President Vladimir Putin in a phone call "the importance of ... seizing the opportunity presented by the ongoing discussions between Russia, France, Germany and Ukraine to reach a peaceful resolution" to the violence in Eastern Ukraine.
A day earlier, Obama said he hadn't yet decided whether or not to send arms and equipment to forces loyal to Kiev, saying he was still seeking a diplomatic end to the crisis. Standing alongside German Chancellor Angela Merkel at a press conference, Obama said the chances for a military solution in Ukraine were "low."
"If Russia continues its aggressive actions in Ukraine, including by sending troops, weapons and financing to support the separatists, the costs for Russia will rise," Obama told Putin, according to the White House.
Read more: http://edition.cnn.com/2015/02/10/politics/obama-putin-ukraine/index.html
Obama warns Putin over deepening Ukraine crisis
Kathrin Hille in Moscow and Megan Murphy in Washington
...
The report of Mr Obama’s call with Mr Putin came after a key security adviser to he Russian leader accused the US of seeking to drag Russia directly into war in Ukraine through the possible plan to arm Kiev, underlining the seriousness with which Moscow would greet such a move.
“The Americans are trying to draw the Russian Federation into an interstate military conflict, to achieve regime change through the events in Ukraine and to ultimately dismember our country,” said Nikolai Patrushev, head of the Kremlin’s security council.
The start of such arms supplies would be “one more confirmation that the US is a direct participant in the conflict,” Mr Patrushev added, warning that if Washington took this step, the conflict would “escalate only further”.
Mr Patrushev is one of Mr Putin’s closest associates — a former head of the FSB intelligence agency that succeeded the KGB, and one of the security officials with whose help the president runs the country.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/664a8c16-b14c-11e4-a830-00144feab7de.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
If the US starts pumping arms into Ukraine, US arms manufacturers will be overjoyed, but much of Ukraine
could end up a burned-out shell of its former self (think Beirut, Afghanistan, Vietnam, etc). In time, the deaths
could easily be well into the 6-figures.
It's hard to see how anybody but the MIC's of both the US and Russia benefits from a Ukraine war.
We know what the Oligarchs/bank$/CEOs on both sides want (Ukraine's resources, of all kinds
).
But nobody seems to be asking: What's in it for Ukraine?
I repeat:
Pray for peace.
- What do you think Hollande, Merkel, Poroshenko and Putin have been doing in their meetings this whole past week. In Russia. They need no encouragement or input from you. Since no drones are needed.
Jealousy is ugly.
