International

In the course of 2014 a civil war has broken out in Ukraine, a war which has led, in addition to three thousands deaths, six thousand woundings and a million refugees, to a situation in which relations between Russia on the one side and the European Union and United States on the other are on a knife edge. Twenty-five years after the fall of the Berlin Wall the two blocks once again face each other as opponents across a political, economic and military divide, with Europe running into danger. SP Senator Tiny Kox, active in the Council of Europe, was witness to part of this and reports below.

‘I want us now to do everything we can to maintain the cease-fire in Ukraine. Our message to Russia, America and the European Union must be: don’t any longer provoke conflicts in Europe, but try to avoid them or stop them.’ This was the call from SP Senator Tiny Kox as the Ukraine ceasefire began to look shaky. Kox issued his call from the Strasbourg-based Council of Europe, of which Russia and Ukraine, in common with all other European countries, are members.