U.S. - NATO Think-Tank: Ukraine Faces 'Enormous Existential Challenge'

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) and former National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley

Larry Luxner, Real Clear Defense/Atlantic Council: Hadley: Ukraine Faces 'Enormous Existential Challenge'

The United States and its European allies must dramatically step up efforts to help the Ukrainian people defend themselves from Russian President Vladimir Putin and his proxies in eastern Ukraine, said Stephen J. Hadley, who served as National Security Adviser under US President George W. Bush.

Hadley, speaking June 13 at the Atlantic Council's Wroclaw Global Forum in Wroclaw, Poland, said NATO has not done enough to deter recent Russian aggression.

"Ukraine has to succeed. It is facing an enormous existential challenge," Hadley warned. "We can't do things in our traditional, methodical way. We have to do something dramatic. They will not extricate themselves from the economic crisis that the Russian invasion has intentionally put them in. Russia is banking that we will allow them to fail, and that the Ukrainian people will decide at some point that turning west was a mistake."

WNU Editor: This article is a perfect example on how "narrow-minded" the West has become when it comes to the crisis in Ukraine. The focus is on what is Russia doing, not on the deep divisions that are in Ukraine itself .... especially since the revolution and overthrow of the previous Kiev government last year. Ukraine is rapidly becoming a country divided between Ukrainians on one side, and Russian - Ukrainians on the other .... and until this sectarian divide is properly addressed to by both the Ukraine government and by the West .... rather than calling these opponents Russian proxies and/or terrorists .... peace in Ukraine will never come.