Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko delivers a speech during a ceremony to hand over armoured vehicles KrAZ Cougar to the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe's (OSCE), which will be used for monitoring the situation in eastern regions of Ukraine, near the Defence Ministry headquarters in Kiev November 13, 2014. Credit: Reuters/Mikhail Palinchak/Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/Handout via Reuters
Ukraine Takes Economic Swing At Rebels – But Might Hit Pensioners Instead -- Fred Weir, Christian Science Monitor
President Poroshenko canceled a 'special status' law for Donetsk and Luhansk, effectively cutting off the regions' hospitals, schools, and pensioners from state money. Many worry that it will hurt defenseless locals.
Moscow — The conflict between Kiev and pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine has opened a new economic front that will force civilians to leave rebel-held areas or lose government funding and services.
Amid a steadily evaporating two-month old cease-fire, President Petro Poroshenko over the weekend ordered the cancellation of a previous law on "special status" for those territories. That means that all government offices must be shut down, including a full halt in funding for pensions, hospitals, schools, and other services. Ukraine's Central Bank is instructed to close all banking services, invalidating any banking cards held by the population.
"Our authorities have decided to play all-or-nothing," says Vadim Karasyov, director of the independent Institute of Global Strategies in Kiev. "This is a transition from military to economic competition for the east; it's an attempt to knock the wind out of the [rebels]. Either these republics will survive, or they won't. The Kiev authorities obviously hope rebel authorities won't be able to cope, and that Moscow will refuse to feed them."
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Update: In Donetsk, homeless Ukrainians loathe Kiev government -- AFP
My Comment: This is targeting the civilian population that are the most vulnerable .... and I am seething with anger because I know that many people ... primarily senior citizens .... are going to suffer greatly because of it.
The hope in Kiev is that the people impacted by these sanctions will be desperate enough that they will either leave the region .... or .... put pressure on the rebel groups and rebel governments to surrender. My prediction .... this will not happen. Too much blood, property damage, and lives ruined have occurred .... and no one in the east is going to surrender on these terms.
I know that what is needed is a resumption of mediated talks that will separate the combatants and lay the groundwork for future talks to develop a power sharing arrangement .... preferably a federal state. Unfortunately .... I also know that this is not going to happen. Kiev is too hell-bent on keeping governmental authority within it's own jurisdiction, and they have no interest to accommodate the east.
The sad part is that I know that in the end .... Kiev is not going to win. When the Nazis with their Ukrainian allies were in controlled of this region during the Second World War, they waged a campaign of widespread brutality and murder .... but the people still survived. I can say the same for today .... Kiev can launch its military to wage unlimited warfare as well as cutting-off all essential services to the east .... but in the end .... the people will survive.
2 comments:
With all the contrary evidence staring Kiev in the face, I just don't understand how they think this a winning strategy.
They have no strategy .... and that is the problem. They are also being swept with a number of economic problems that the western press is not covering. Putin was right when he was asked at Brisbane on what his opinion on the Ukrainian decision to sever these economic ties. His answer .... he was not surprised, they have no money. They did this to give the impression that they are on the top of the situation, when .... they are not.
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