MOSCOW, September 8 (RIA Novosti) – The Ukrainian statehood conflict cannot be resolved by the West and will continue for decades, a professor at the US University of Rhode Island and Fulbright scholar in Ukraine said Monday.
"This conflict will continue for decades to come," Nicolai Petro said.
One reason is that even the "most generous aid package of Western assistance imaginable is still an order of magnitude too small to stabilize the entire Ukrainian economy."
Most estimates put Ukraine's debt at somewhere around $160 billion. The entire aid package is a fraction of that.
"Another reason is the Western failure to grasp that the current crisis is not the result of the civil war, rather the civil war is the result of the failure to resolve the fundamental issue of national identity and statehood in a manner that satisfied all Ukrainians," the professor said.
Another crisis, that of Russian relations with the West, is the result of the unfortunate decision to hold relations with Russia hostage to the success of Ukrainian statehood.
"Having put all their eggs in the Ukrainian nationals basket, both the current government in Kiev and its western supporters, they have every reason to blame Russia for any and all failures," Petro said.
The conflict has been more than 20 years in the making. Bearing the harvest of the post - Cold War relations that was always cast as a conflict of values.
"The Reset, which was popular for a while, was an attempt to mitigate the negative effect of a conflict of the values, which spiraled under the control of George W Bush. Now that it is failed, the United States seems to return the earlier model of mitigation. We are entering new containment phase," Petro said.
While the English speaking community of nations seems to be willing to follow America's lead in confronting Russia, Western and Central European nations, notably Austria, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Romania, are reluctant to sever their commercial ties with Russia.
Meanwhile, Russia is sticking to the three principles it formulated during the war with Georgia in August 2008: Moscow will step aside from direct confrontation from the West and refuse to be drawn in direct conflict, diversify markets and democratize international relations.
