The Ukrainian independence parade last Sunday in Kiev was a bombastic flexing of muscles that did not impress Moscow, which has shown its determination to assist the people of east Ukraine by sending humanitarian relief convoys to the region. Meanwhile, Kiev's sense of historical grievance explains its recent belligerence, with the hawks in Kiev seeing a Kremlin threat wherever they look. Not to be outdone, pro-Russia insurgents in Russian-speaking eastern Ukraine staged a rival parade in their stronghold of Donetsk. Ukrainian prisoners of war sporting tattered Ukrainian military uniforms were marched past jeering crowds who pelted the captured Ukrainian forces with eggs and tomatoes. “Hang the fascists,” shouted the angry crowds. The catcalls were drowned in a chorus of nostalgic Russian anthems and nationalistic songs. Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin met his Ukrainian counterpart, Petro Poroshenko, in the Belorussian capital Minsk under the auspices of Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko, a close ally of the Kremlin. As the Weekly went to press, it was not clear what had transpired in the Minsk talks, but drawing Kiev into a strengthened Eurasian framework presided over by Russia seems out of the question. The Eurasian Customs Union, made up of the former Soviet countries of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan, is going ahead with or without Ukraine. The Kremlin envisages a common economic space with Belarus and Kazakhstan that could soon be joined by Kyrgyzstan and Armenia. Nothing illustrates the turnaround in Russian-Ukrainian relations more starkly than Kiev's non-membership of the Customs Union, the country having made it plain that it prefers the neighbouring European Union. However, EU representatives were on hand to attend the Putin-Poroshenko summit in Minsk. EU diplomacy tends to veer between finger wagging and a desire for reconciliation. In Minsk, the EU was represented by foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, energy commissioner Günther Oettinger and trade commissioner Karel De Gucht. The Putin-Poroshenko summit was convened shortly after the Ukrainian leader dissolved the Ukrainian Parliament on the pretext that many MPs were pro-Russian. Fresh general elections are scheduled for mid-October. The EU has been ambivalent about the fate of the Russian-speaking Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine. Nevertheless, Brussels has many times expressed its desire to see the continued integrity of Ukrainian territory, even if the precise meaning of this has been unclear. The Kremlin, too, has been ambiguous about the destiny of Russian-speakers in eastern Ukraine. In a fading corner of cultural memory and haunted by recent developments, it is difficult to see how the aspirations of the Russian-speaking eastern Ukrainians can be reconciled with Kiev. It is against this background that the Kremlin launched its humanitarian convoys to eastern Ukraine. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has notified Kiev that another Russian humanitarian convoy will be heading for eastern Ukraine in the days ahead. The convoys moved into the region without the agreement of Kiev, delivering their aid and then heading back to Russia under the disapproving eyes of the Kiev government. Kiev protested against the deliveries and launched a campaign of anti-Russian propaganda, including the start-up of a new English-language television station, Ukraine Today. The idea is to try to embroil Russia further in controversy and prevent it from extending its influence further into Eurasian territory. No fewer than 227 Russian vehicles crossed into Ukraine last Friday as part of the convoys, according to the Organisation of Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which has an observer mission on the border between Russia and Ukraine. The only conciliatory gesture made to Kiev was that the convoys crossed the border back into Russia after delivering the humanitarian assistance. The Russian vehicles were supposed to be monitored by members of the International Committee of the Red Cross, but this was not the case. “We call this a direct invasion under the cynical cover of the Red Cross,” said Valentyn Nalyvaychenko, head of Ukraine's security services. While a code of conduct was discussed, Russia has shown itself to be unwilling to submit to legally binding restraints. “Further delay would have been unacceptable,” a Kremlin statement said. Tensions in eastern Ukraine have now reached breaking point. More than 2,000 people have died and 5,000 have been wounded in the area since mid-April. Economically and politically, Poroshenko has been driving Kiev towards the subservient status of a colony of the EU, also wanting to join NATO in a further irritation to Russia. The country has now declared general conscription, putting it almost on a war footing with Moscow. However, Russia has refused to bend before western sanctions and Poroshenko's provocations. Russian Ambassador to the United Nations Vitaly Churkin said this week that 1,200 orphans had been abandoned in eastern Ukraine because of the political situation. “What do the UN human rights defenders think about this? Don't children deserve safety?” he asked. Kiev's punitive operations in eastern Ukraine have created a humanitarian catastrophe, explaining the anti-Kiev feelings in the region. Russia's resolve to dispatch the humanitarian convoys to its kith and kin in the war-torn region can be explained by the extension of the current emergency.
