The war in Ukraine between separatists from what are being called the ‘New Russian’ republics and forces loyal to the Kiev regime is taking on the character of a positional stand-off. Both sides appear exhausted and are fast running out of resources, despite Kiev being assured of US support. For the people’s republics, defending themselves against the larger military forces of the Ukrainian military, the well-known principle of “A government needs to win, but for an insurrection it is enough not to lose”, operates with full force. Russia has acted with incredible restraint despite the murder of hundreds of ethnic Russian civilians in eastern and southern Ukraine and its stated policy of protecting ethnic Russian communities in what it terms the ‘near abroad’, mostly countries that were formerly within the USSR. Over 2,200 people have been killed according to the UN by Ukrainian air and artillery strikes against their homes and infrastructure; 188,000 have been displaced and are refugees in Russia. The crisis has been ignored by the western press after the crash of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in July and initial accusations against pro-Russian separatists proved unfounded. Kiev has not released the records of communications between Ukrainian air traffic control and MH17, and Washington has not released the photos from its satellite that was directly overhead at the time of the airliner’s crash, leading to speculation that with no evidence to make the charge stick, Kiev and its US backers are trying to cover up an embarrassing mistake. On Friday Russia acted decisively to alleviate some humanitarian concerns by deploying a convoy of 260 aid trucks to Luhansk and Donetsk, rebel held cities where stiff fighting continues between separatists and government troops. Ukraine and the US called the deployment an “invasion”. The trucks were stopped at the Russian-Ukrainian border awaiting permission from the Kiev government since August 12. “We are acting in full compliance with the norms of international humanitarian law. We can no longer and will not accept the distress of residents living in the south-eastern Ukraine,” said Sergey Ryabkov, Russia’s deputy foreign minister. This statement encapsulates the political problem Moscow faces: the continued slaughter of ethnic Russian populations in eastern and southern Ukraine will eventually demoralise the Russian people and undermine their support for President Putin’s government for failing to halt it. This is precisely what the west hopes to achieve by accusing Russia of aggression with no evidence, so that it does not intervene decisively. Recently NATO officials said that Russia was mobilising an army on the Ukrainian border and that Russian troops were shelling Ukrainian army positions from across the border, which Russia denied. The accusatory rhetoric is deepening the crisis even as Russia continues to approach the diplomatic table and offer a facts-based version of events. It appears the west is not listening and as Russia continues to call the west’ bluff, the worry is the west will spark a wider war rather than back down. *