Why Are We Furthering Putin’s Land Grab?

Having read the article “Ukraine Crisis has Shocked the Ruble,” I find it incomprehensible why Secretary of State John Kerry made his recent an­nouncement of an agreement between Russia and Ukraine.

Our country and the European Union’s response regarding Ukraine is so similar to Clement Atlee returning from Germany with a peace treaty with Hitler, which he said, “Guarantees peace in our time.” Never since then have the Western nations been so weak in their response to an illegal takeover of anoth­er country. Putin still has troops on the border of Ukraine and has reserved the right to send them into Ukraine. This is a blatant land grab for the section of Ukraine with the most valuable resources, just as his annexation of Crimea was to assure him a warm wa­ter port, even if it meant breaking every international law and agreement in existence with the flimsiest rationale since we invaded Iraq.

We, the Western nations, appear too frightened to stand up to Vladimir Putin in any meaningful way. Putin, like Germany in 1938, is aware we will continue minor sanctions even though we know the supposed Ukraine-Russian agreement is simply a delaying tactic to prevent more serious sanctions, which if enacted immediately might give him pause. We have also publicly taken a military response off the table. So did England, and we all recall how well that went in 1939.