As Kiev moves heavy weapons to contact line, Forbes warns against Ukraine in NATO

Basurin pointed out to the media that heavy weapons along the contact line are prohibited by the Minsk agreements.

“The area of Artemovsk has documented the arrival of eight new howitzers, caliber 152 mm”, Basurin said.

The news comes in the wake of the G20 summit to which the Ukrainian government was not invited. The decision was alledgedly made by the summit’s host, Angela Merkel. One theory popular in Russian media is that Berlin’s dissatisfaction with Kiev’s failure to fulfill the Minsk Agreements was the reason for Ukraine’s exclusion. Elections to the German Bundestag are scheduled for late September, and Merkel has no desire to once again remind German voters of the failure of Germany’s foreign policy strategy, analyst Eduard Popov noted.

Moreover, following the talks between Putin and Trump, the Normandy Four held a meeting without the participation of its own patient – Ukraine.

Ukrainian oligarch, ex-governor of the Donetsk region Sergey Taruta has meanwhile called for the continuation of sabotage in the Donbass Ukrainian channel 112 radio: “Guerrilla warfare must go on. It should be planned from here and transferred to the military professionals who would be involved in sabotage, as we did when there was a war. It was not a grassroots movements but arose the center (government). Therefore, Kiev’s mission is to organise, motivate and ensure the supply of arms and everything else,” Taruta said.

A senior fellow at the Cato Institute, Doug Bandow, has said outright that the inclusion of Ukraine in NATO is a bad idea, which the United States must soon give up. Bandow is a regular contributor to Forbes.

“In terms of security, Ukraine is a ‘black hole’, and its inclusion in the alliance would not increase the protection of Americans. For the alliance, it would be better to shut the door firmly in front of Kiev and dispel the illusions,” Bandow noted. “NATO must include new members only if it increases the security of the Alliance as a whole,” he said.

“Even the European leaders could not ignore the obvious,” Bandow said commenting on the recent call by the head of European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, to the Ukrainian authorities to seriously tackle corruption.

“Ukraine’s inclusion does not serve American interests, and may justify a confrontation with a nuclear power. Especially when you consider the immediate, serious and obvious interests for Russia,” Bandow said, explaining that Moscow views NATO expansion as a primary threat.

The recent inclusion of Montenegro the “micro-state” in NATO, even though it is not threatened by anyone at all, does not help the United States, the author stated.

Promises made to Kiev by the US are contributing to uncertainty. Washington and its European allies should reject Ukraine’s advances with a firm “no” and instead find a practical solution to Ukrainian conflict.