Former US Ambassador: “The struggle in Ukraine is more serious than ISIS,”

Members of the Ukrainian armed forces ride armored 

vehicles in the Donetsk region of Ukraine on June 9.

Photo: Reuters

Vladimir Putin continues to chip away at Ukraine while the west just watches.

In the past year, Ukraine has lost 9% of its territory, 1.3 million people have fled Russian-occupied regions, 6,200 people have died and 30,000 have been wounded.

On July 17, one year ago, Russian missiles blew up a Malaysian plane over Ukraine, killing 298 passengers on board, a war crime barely mentioned.

Ukraine’s economy has been damaged and the country’s payments on debts, due to years of exorbitant Russian gas prices, are the same as defense costs.

Russia’s aggression is at bay because, in the absence of military aid from the west, thousands of volunteers have armed themselves to help their rag-tag army.

President Obama and Europe worry that arming Ukraine will provide Putin with a pretext to escalate the war. But Putin has never needed pretexts to rough up the neighbors.

Without modern weaponry and funds, Ukraine is a knife in a gunfight. Take the example of 19-year-old “Maley” who went to the front last year, equipped with his grandfather’s hunting rifle and a steel plate that his mother bought strapped to his chest.

Ukraine Frontline Troops Dig Down With Pig Named Putin

He joined a volunteer brigade of roughly 10,000 fighters and became a sniper. In April, he was wounded on patrol when an army medic behind him stepped on a land mine and lost both her legs.

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