Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany has made clear there this will happen soon if Russia does not pull back. “Russia is trying to alter existing borders under the threat or even the use of force,” she told Parliament on Monday. The officials are meeting this week to assemble a new package of sanctions targeting Russia’s banking, energy and defense sectors. The American President Obama reassured Eastern European allies of American support. It’s possible to provide arms and more intelligence to Ukraine’s military after Putin suggested that Russia could “take Kiev in two weeks” if it wanted to, telling in a statement the president of the European Commission. Democrats and Republicans in Congress urged Mr. Obama to step up direct assistance to Ukraine’s armed forces, perceiving the circumstances as a “watershed moment.”
The last peaceful solution was proposed by group of American and Russian experts and former government officials who produced a 24-point plan during a meeting on the Finnish island of Boisto. They asked a cease-fire enforced by United Nations peacekeepers, a withdrawal of Ukrainian and Russian forces, partial amnesty and a guarantee that Ukraine remains unaligned.
