UKRAINE IN FLAMES – AT 10:26 A.M. ET:  For some reason, this has become the forgotten front.  But Ukraine is at least as important as the Mideast.  It borders Russia.  It borders NATO countries.   And Russia wants to control it.  From The Los Angeles Times:   

Thirty civilians were killed and102 wounded in missile attacks Saturday on Mariupol, an industrial center and seaport in southeast Ukraine, officials said.

The Grad missiles struck a day after Donetsk region pro-Russia separatist leader Alexander Zakharchenko said his forces were launching a wide-ranging offensive.

“This is a crime against humanity to be tried by the Hague tribunal,” Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said in a statement condemning the attack.

U.S. Secretary of State John F. Kerry also denounced the assault. “It is reprehensible that the separatists are publicly glorifying this and other offensives,” he said in a statement. He said the attacks were “aided and abetted by Russia’s irresponsible and dangerous decision to resupply” the separatists in recent weeks.

Kerry has noticed that Russia is an enemy.  I wonder what the boss man thinks.

About 60 missiles landed in eastern Mariupol in a pair of attacks, one in the morning and the other about four hours later, Donetsk regional deputy police chief Ilya Kiva said.

“Several streets, many residential houses and two food markets were hit. This being a Saturday morning, many people were at home or outside,” Kiva said in a phone interview. “Whole families died either in their apartment or in the street strolling or going to the market.”

Kiva said he had no doubt that it was intentional, given the accuracy of the second salvo. “The nearest Ukrainian army checkpoint outside the city is about [3 miles] from the place, and the terrorists know well where it is, because they have already shot at it many times in the last three days.”

COMMENT:  If the situation deteriorates, the West may have a very grave decision to make – whether to intervene militarily.  We cannot accept a takeover by pro-Russian elements.

This has to be happening in part because the Russians and their allies see the West as unwilling to do anything much to save Ukraine.  The coming weeks may be critical.  The mess in the Mideast is drawing American attention away from Ukraine, and Putin knows it.

January 25, 2015