Parliamentarians in Ukraine took an unprecedented vote in Kiev on Tuesday to drop the nation’s non-aligned status. It was a brave step considering that the nation has been wrenched apart by a schism echoing its long-standing ethnic and linguistic divisions — and the conflict over a pro-Russian sovereignty movement has claimed more than 4,400 lives.
It is a vote that will open the door for Ukraine to fall under the protective umbrella of the Nato in the future. And one that will antagonise Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Kremlin cohorts — the last thing they will stand for is the prospect of Nato troops hard up against the borders of Russia in the eastern region of Ukraine. And considering that this is the very land that is disputed and claimed by the Donetsk-based separatists, whom Putin has so strongly backed, the Kiev parliament’s move cannot be taken lightly.
The parliamentarians’ vote is, at best, over-zealous and rather hasty. The peace deal in place to end the violence is shaky at best. This just makes it harder for it to be sustainable.
