The shooting down of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 is a travesty. The blame falls squarely on the shoulders of Vladimir Putin and Russia. The Russians have been instigating an ongoing covert war against Ukraine and the Ukrainian people for many months. The Russians have been killing thousands of Ukrainian military and civilians.

Their proxies in this war have been the pro-Russian separatists within Ukraine. These are not Ukrainians but Russians who live within the borders of Ukraine and reject Ukraine’s quest for freedom, democracy and the rule of law. Ukrainians have wholeheartedly repudiated the corruption, lawlessness and dishonesty that is rampant under Putin in Russia. And that is why this irritates Putin. If the citizens of Ukraine can renounce Putin’s dictatorial authority, he knows that eventually the Russian people will see the clarity of truth and justice and will denounce Putin himself. He cannot allow this. That is why he has sent in Russian military into Ukraine to encourage, train and guide the separatists.

The international community can no longer ignore the fact that there are Russian troops fighting within the borders of Ukraine. It is Russia who has been supplying weapons, tanks and other sophisticated armaments including the anti-aircraft missiles that shot down the Malaysian airplane.

The separatists, under Russian military control and guidance, have been shooting down Ukrainian military aircraft for the last month and killing hundreds of Ukrainians being transported in these cargo planes. The Russians’ blatant disregard for human life has now culminated in the death of hundreds of innocent non-Ukrainian civilians killed while flying a well-travelled international airline route.

Putin needs eastern Ukraine within his clutches because it is his land bridge from Russia to Crimea, which Russia illegally invaded and annexed to Russia earlier this year.  Russia invaded Crimea to secure its warm water ports on the Black Sea and get control of its offshore energy resources.

The world can no longer deny the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The time is now for the United States to lead the international community in its full support of a free and sovereign Ukraine. Ukraine is America’s ally. Russia is America’s and, by its recent actions, the world’s enemy. We need to supply Ukraine with everything it needs to kill or capture the separatists and the Russian invaders within Ukraine’s borders. We can no longer look the other way. Putin and his Russian lackeys understand only one thing — the show of strength and international unity against Russian arrogance and aggression.

 

Leonid Skorin Jr.

Albert Lea