The situation in Ukraine right now is pretty grim. The European-brokered "ceasefire" is joke, even if the Obama administration continues to hold out hope. Russian separatists launched an offensive against the town of Debaltseve, forcing Ukrainian troops to retreat. The State Department, for its part, boldly affirmed the Ukrainian government’s "sovereign right" to surrender their territory to foreign aggressors. How comforting.
Obviously, Putin deserves most of the blame for the carnage in eastern Ukraine. If he wanted the fighting to stop, it would. But the Ukrainian people are also suffering from the corruption and incompetence of their own government and military. This passage from a riveting Washington Post report on the Ukrainian battalion charged with defending Debaltseve captures the depravity of the situation:
Charged since mid-January with protecting the outskirts of the strategic rail town of Debaltseve, the battalion was facing the worst fighting in the Ukraine war’s hottest zone — without a commander. He abandoned them about a week ago, they said, and was blown up by a roadside bomb while fleeing.
Ukrainian "leaders"—from the exploded runaway commander to the highest levels of government—hardly seem worthy of the mostly young soldiers doing the fighting and dying on its behalf. In the face of such widespread corruption and cowardice, much of the war effort is being undertaken by Ukrainian volunteers, who I wrote about in January. I heard numerous stories, for example, about how what little aid the United States is providing, such as blankets and meals ready-to-eat, is as likely to end up for sale online as it is to make it to the troops serving on the front lines.
In the absence of Ukrainian leadership that is willing and able to conduct itself like a respectable democracy, not to mention a serious Western strategy, Putin will continue to cause trouble, and more people will die.