Let us hope that common sense prevails in the Ukraine

WE have all seen the vicious clashes between some of the Ukrainian people and their former president.

Why are they all fighting? Well, from my reading of it all, after WWII Ukraine was one of those countries Europe messed up to try and stop Russia and Communism spreading. Russia liked Ukraine and sent lots of Russians over to start up their own lives there. Then of course, anti-dictator, pro-democracy people moved into western Ukraine. Hence, the division today.

Basically, as Europe was trying to bring the Ukraine into the Union the Ukrainians, well some, were thrilled. Their president Yanukovich was about to sign the treaty when Putin said ‘if you do that, we will take out our funding and you won’t get good oil prices anymore’. So the president backed out, causing huge uproar which left 77 dead and many more wounded.

The Ukrainian people won so, now what?

Well, as Europe promises to pump funds into the Ukraine, pro-Russia supporters are feeling edgy, along with Putin and Co. Imagine Putin’s reaction if NATO and European soldiers came in, edging along the border with Russia? He’d probably lose the plot.

Of course, like any state divided, there are threats of civil war now. The pro-Europeans are holding up barriers around Kiev while in Eastern Ukraine there are pro-Russians going out beating up pro-European people. So, what’s next?

Well, Europe has made a mess of many countries, to be fair, along that old border, where Communist Russia took over. Take the Bosnian-Serb war in Yugoslavia, for example — another great mess. Essentially, the Bosnian War was fought because Serbs and Croats living in Bosnia wanted to annex Bosnian territory for Serbia and Croatia respectively.

Ethnic cleansing took place and more than 12,000 residents of Sarajevo were killed during the 43 months of siege.

Throughout Bosnia, Bosnian Serb nationalists and the JNA began a programme of ethnic cleansing in order to create a “pure” Serbian territory and thousands of Bosnians were brought to camps, tortured, beaten, raped and even killed.

Hoping, of course, that nothing like this will happen in Ukraine, we know ourselves all about sectarian attacks. Take a quick look at Northern Ireland.

Let’s hope that common sense prevails and they are not facing into several years of bloodshed.