Ukraine Unable to Build Up Its Own Sovereignty – Former Czech President

Ukraine should not pin hopes on economic and military aid from Western countries, according to former Czech President Vaclav Klaus, who was quoted by the Czech newspaper České Noviny.

Speaking at a Global Open Society Forum, Klaus also said that the current situation in Ukraine was caused by the Ukrainian authorities' inability to carry out the transformation of the communist system, rather than by the Ukrainian-Russian conflict and relations between Russia and the West.

"This is an obvious consequence of the country's failure to carry out a successful transition from communism to a system of freedom, pluralism, parliamentary democracy and a market economy," Klaus said.

According to him, Ukraine still exists in line with the principles of the former Soviet Republic and is not able to build full-fledged statehood and become a sovereign country.

Vaclav Klaus also stressed that Russia's conflict with the West was caused artificially.

"Today, the completely artificial conflict between the West and Russia is no longer a confrontation between two fundamentally different political and socio-economic systems," Klaus said.

His remarks came shortly after the magazine Foreign Policy asked Ukraine "not to shoot yourself in the foot", commenting on a recent bill adopted by the Ukrainian parliament.

The bill stipulates the recognition of the controversial 1930's-40's era Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), which waged a terrorist campaign against Poland for independence and later sided with the Third Reich against the Soviet Union and Poles, who they ethnically cleansed from Ukraine.

In late 2014, the Russian Supreme Court of Russia declared the UPA an extremist organization and banned its activities in Russia.