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Ukraine Tops NATO Agenda in Wales
More
than sixty world leaders gathered for the beginning of a two-day NATO
summit in Wales, where Western leaders criticized Russia for its
"destabilizing" influence on the crisis in Ukraine (BBC). On the eve of the summit, Russian president Vladimir Putin announced a seven-point peace plan (NYT)
for Ukraine that included the halting of separatist offensives and the
pullout of Ukrainian forces from eastern separatists' strongholds—a
proposal that Ukraine's prime minister dismissed. Diplomatic tensions
heightened further as Russia's foreign minister warned Thursday that Ukraine's NATO ambitions were threatening to derail peace talks (AP) in eastern Ukraine, where pro-Russian separatists have been fighting government troops since mid-April.
Analysis
"The choice is between a Ukraine with an autonomous Donbass region, along with a real chance of developing the country's democracy and economy in a Western direction,
or a Ukraine which will be mired in a half-frozen conflict that will
undermine all hopes of progress," writes Anatol Lieven for the New York Times.
"The Wales Summit will not do all some hope for, but it will likely do more than many expect.
The threats confronting NATO are serious, even historic, but they are
orders of magnitude removed from the threats the U.S. and Europe faced
during the Cold War," writes Joe Cirincione for Defense One.
"The most that Poroshenko can hope for [at the NATO summit] is a doubling down on Western sanctions against Russia
and limited military assistance, so that his country can survive intact
in its unenviable no-man's land," writes CFR's Stewart Patrick. | 
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