Blog 2: The Ukrainian Crisis- Another Attempt at Peace

        For nearly a year now Ukraine has been in conflict with Russian separatists, since then over 5,000 people have been killed in attempt to put an end to the struggle. On Thursday February 12^th 2015 a cease fire was called between the Ukraine and Russian terrorist groups, although it does not come into full effect until Sunday. Since the call for a cease fire 8 Ukrainian soldiers have died and more than thirty have been injured. According to Ukraine's prime minister “We had just two options: bad, and worse. So we decided at this particular period of time to get the bad option...” and that this was the only option that could potentially save more lives. According to CNN's Nick paton, who spoke with separatists on Thursday, that the separatists are very skeptical about the peace plan. However this is not the first “cease fire” agreement between the countries, back in September the two parties came to a similar peace agreement which was discarded shorty after. Many people feel that reason for the failure behind such agreements is that Russia is not fully behind the attacks, although some believe that this is not the case and that the Russian government may actually be sending weapons to Ukraine, and therefore cannot fulfill all promises made in the agreement. At this time one of the biggest questions regarding the conflict is what will happen to the town of Debaltseve, which is very strategically important, is government controlled, and has been under separatists control for weeks now. Since then thousands of Ukrainian soldiers have been surrounded and it is unsure which side will come to control the town when the agreement comes into effect. The cease fire does not come into full effect until Monday February 16^th when both sides have agreed to a 50 kilometer, or 31 miles, wide buffer zone between the two sides. 

William A. Bullard 

February 13th 2015

6:31 PM 

 http://edition.cnn.com/2015/02/13/europe/ukraine-conflict/index.html