Ukraine’s choices

Apparently Vladimir Putin has told the new Egyptian leader, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, that the US and allies started the trouble in Ukraine, and if ever anything was plainly true this is.

There was, remember, the 
Orange Revolution of 2004-05 in which great Western attention was accorded Yulia Tymoshenko, and it was subsequently common knowledge that US and allied interests were involved in 
supporting Tymoshenko. Why it should be expected that the population of East Ukraine be subject to the rule of a government in West Ukraine that attained power by street rioting, supported in that by the US and allies, contradicts common sense.

That it is okay for heavy armour to bombard the urban populations of East Ukraine without them taking retaliatory measures is similarly unjustifiable.

It seems obvious that the two regions of the country have less in common than merits their single unified nationhood and that two separate countries is a more peaceful preference.

If, as under ousted president Viktor Yanukovych, the Kiev-centred West Ukraine was unwilling to accept a government empowered by East Ukraine (Yanukovych had been governor of Donetsk), why should East Ukraine accept rule by a government from the other side of the country?

Ian Johnstone

Forman Drive

Peterhead