Newsweek: Vladimir Putin Says He Fears 'Srebrenica-like' Massacre in Ukraine
Russian President Vladimir Putin has defended the decision to keep his country’s porous border with war stricken regions of Ukraine open, saying the move was aimed at avoiding a Srebrenica-like massacre.
The conflict in Ukraine’s Donetsk and Luhansk regions began after weeks of mass protests against pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych in the capital Kiev. Russia continues to deny that the insurgents, who have held Ukraine’s army at bay near the Russian border for three years, are commanded or sponsored by the Russian military.
According to Putin, Moscow’s decision not to close the border with the rebel-occupied areas was based on humanitarian concerns and compared the situation to one of the biggest acts of ethnic cleansing in Europe since World War II.
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WNU Editor: Russian President Putin has only started to voice these concerns recently .... and he has cause to be concerned. The conflict in Ukraine has been ongoing now for almost 3 and a half years .... and there is no resolution in sight. If what I am being told by my family and friends in Ukraine is half true .... bitterness and frustration in the eastern half of the country is deep and pervasive ... especially in the regions where Russian-Ukrainians are dominant and there is a huge Ukrainian military presence. But it is not the civilian population that I am worried about, the big fear that I have always had with this conflict is the state of morale in the Ukraine army. This is a conscript army where many are not happy to be where they are today, even with a pay raise .... Poroshenko: Servicemen in war zone to get Hr 1,000-3,000 in bonuses in October (Kyiv Post). I have also heard that of these soldiers are growing increasingly frustrated that they are in a quagmire that shows no sign of a resolution .... and what makes it even worse is that there is a great deal of resentment directed at them from the local Russian Ukrainian population. In this toxic environment anything is possible, and all that it will take is one stupid incident where Ukrainian soldiers are killed, and they take their revenge on a local town. A My-Lai type massacre would be a political earthquake in the Russian dominated regions of Ukraine and throughout Europe, but the biggest impact will be in Russia itself. Russian President Putin will not be able to stop the outcry for a direct military intervention .... even if he knows that this would only explode into a major war that may result in the biggest migration of people in Europe since the Yugoslav civil wars. So yes .... Putin has reason to be worried. As for Ukrainian President Poroshenko, he had a window when he was elected to find a compromise, but he chose a military solution that failed. And now .... his focus is to frame the conflict on his terms and conditions, but the problem with this approach is that it avoids the reason why this war started in the first place .... Ukraine's Petro Poroshenko aims to redefine eastern conflict (DW).
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