Bharat Rakshak

Olexiy Melnyk, co-director for Foreign Relations and International Security Programs at the Kiev-based Razumkov Center, says he is concerned about violence from Ukraine’s war-torn east spilling over into other regions. Melnyk believes pro-Russian rebels have snuck through Ukrainian military lines, and are operating “from south to north to west” Ukraine.

Western powers want to find common ground with Russia and end their confrontational approach over Ukraine, the EU's foreign policy chief told Italian media. She denied that the EU differs from the US in its position towards dealing with the crisis.

READ MORE: Ukrainians name Donbass deaths ‘event of the year,’ ignore EU deal – poll

Federica Mogherini, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, identified Ukraine as one of the top conflicts worrying Europe, especially regarding its impact on the eurozone’s relations with Russia.

During an interview with Italy's la Repubblica newspaper, Mogherini suggested opening up direct dialogue with Moscow.

“On the one hand, we should strengthen our support for Ukraine, where the internal economic situation could very quickly become very serious. And, on the other hand, we should begin a direct debate with Moscow on our relations and the role Russia could play in other scenarios of the crisis,” Mogherini said.

“Even in Kiev everyone asks the question of how the conflict could be brought to an end,” the official added, saying that the situation is “very difficult for Russia.” She added that it is in Moscow’s interest to “cooperate.”

READ MORE: Moscow to supply coal, electricity to Ukraine without prepayment
At the same time, Mogherini rejected the idea that the EU’s position on the crisis differs from that of the US.

“It is not true that there is a soft Europe stance, which opposes the US hardline position. On the contrary, the latest data shows that trade between Russia and Europe is declining, while trade between Russia and the US is increasing,” she pointed out.

Mogherini said that Washington's views on Russia match those of Europe, adding that “everyone wants to get out of the logic of confrontation.”

READ MORE: Obama signs Russia sanctions bill, no plans to use it for now

The EU foreign policy chief also identified situations in the Middle East and Libya as major concerns for Europe, pointing out that Russia plays a significant role on the international arena and could help to resolve those conflicts.
“We all know Russia plays an important role not only in Ukraine, but also in Syria, Iran, the Middle East, Libya,” she said.

Austrian President Heinz Fischer (Reuters / Dado Ruvic)
More sanctions against Russia are ‘unwise and harmful’

Meanwhile, Austrian President Heinz Fischer warned against intensifying sanctions against Russia, calling the move “unwise and harmful” in an interview to Wirtschaftsblatt newspaper.

The approach that more and more sanctions should be implemented against Russia until it is “weak enough” to forcefully accept the EU’s own “political objectives” is a mistake, according to Fischer.

READ MORE: 'Don’t get Russia wrong': NATO intel warns against misjudging Moscow on Ukraine

“I support those who say that we have reached a stage where...the imposition of new sanctions against Russia will continue to hinder its development, but will not bring us closer to an amicable solution,” Fischer said, adding that it will only create a deeper rift.

“The Russian economy has a certain degree of robustness, but the sanctions pose considerable problems...a serious crisis in Russia and an economic collapse would only create more problems. The doors between Europe and Russia must remain open in the economic field,” he stressed.

A woman enters a destroyed building after it was damaged by recent shelling in the western part of Donetsk, eastern Ukraine (Reuters / Antonio Bronic)

What the Ukraine crisis needs are talks around decentralization reforms, Fischer noted.

“Serious talk of reforms in the area of decentralization or federalization would have to be done, which would foster a situation in eastern Ukraine where both sides could live together.”

In terms of moving towards a solution in Ukraine, a respected ceasefire and reasonable dialogue would need to be observed, Fischer added.

READ MORE: 'Difficult' new Ukraine peace talks begin in Minsk as Kiev sets course for NATO

According to the Austrian leader, the EU overestimated the appeal of the free trade deal, which forced Ukraine to choose between Europe and Russia.

“Brussels apparently overestimated the attractiveness of European Association Agreement compared to the other option for Ukraine – namely the offer from Russia,” he said. “It was recognized only at the last moment that it was a real ordeal for Ukraine to choose between EU offer and the billion offer from [Russian President] Vladimir Putin, which was better suited for the realities faced by Ukraine in the fall of 2013.”

Ukraine needs to be free to build its own relationships with both Europe and Russia, Fischer concluded.

Introduction:
By any measure 2014 has been a truly historic year which saw huge, I would say, even tectonic developments. This year ends in very high instability, and the future looks hard to guess. I don't think that anybody can confidently predict what might happen next year. So what I propose to do today is something far more modest. I want to look into some of the key events of 2014 and think of them as vectors with a specific direction and magnitude. I want to look in which direction a number of key actors (countries) "moved" this year and with what degree of intensity. Then I want to see whether it is likely that they will change course or determination. Then adding up all the "vectors" of these key actors (countries) I want to make a calculation and see what resulting vector we will obtain for the next year. Considering the large number of "unknown unknowns" (to quote Rumsfeld) this exercise will not result in any kind of real prediction, but my hope is that it will prove a useful analytical reference

....(Click link above for the entire post)

Few outside the Russian propaganda bubble ever seriously entertained the Kremlin’s line.

Why this obsession with simplistic analysis. Did takeover of crimea by NATO bother russia? Yes. Did the country as such want a former part of USSR and last buffer in NATO? No

if the ceasefire holds, its because a temporary looting/sharing agreement is in place.

odessa is a fine port, and across the pond are anything from turkey to moldova. port, shmort. russia could build itself alternatives to crimea too. but the ports are dead red herrings here. like everything else.

After Georgia, can there be a ukraine

"The Russian leader condemned the barbaric action and expressed the hope that its perpetrators would be found and would face condign punishment,” the Kremlin press service went on to say.
Putin asked Francois Hollande to convey a feeling of profound compassion and words of support to the families of the dead and wished the earliest recovery to the injured.
The French president thanked Putin for his manifestation of friendly feelings.

French president sounds like he is not opposed to going some way to accommodate Moscow on Ukraine

Hollande is hurting politically on sanctions and the Mistral fiasco.

Clearly he would prefer them lifted, but in a way that saves his face and leaves him free to argue they "worked" and he was right to favor them initially.

By tying end of sanctions to some undefined "progress" that Moscow is supposed to deliver he also ducks responsibility if he fails.

He'll claim he had done all he could have and tell French workers they should really be angry with Russia.

This is an excerpt from an article that originally appeared at France 24

"The goal was never to push Russia politically and economically into chaos," Gabriel told the Bild am Sonntag.

"Whoever wants that will provoke a much more dangerous situation for all of us in Europe," he said, pointing out that Russia was a nuclear power.

A defender of the airport, who are popularly known as 'Cyborgs', claims the rebels have issued an ultimatum to leave the terminal by 5pm today or face destruction.

One of them told Ukraine's LIGA Novosti: "They're smashing us from both sides with tanks 400 metres away and artillery.

Russia throws down the gauntlet: energy supply to Europe cut off; petrodollar abandoned as currency war escalates
-Friday, January 16, 2015 Mike Adams, the Health Range

"Yesterday Russia cut off its natural gas supply to Europe, "plunging the continent into an energy crisis 'within hours' as a dispute with Ukraine escalated," reports the Daily Mail. [1]

"This morning, gas companies in Ukraine said that Russia had completely cut off their supply. Six countries reported a complete shut-off of Russian gas shipped via Ukraine today, in a sharp escalation of a struggle over energy that threatens Europe as winter sets in."

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/048313_curre ... z3P3zP7C4Q