Originally Posted by
melmothtw
For all its failures, the EU's primary success (and perhaps the only one that matters) is that for nearly 70 years it has preserved the peace in Europe. It's telling that the only continental conflicts in this time have involved non-member countries.
and
Originally Posted by
Fox3WheresMyBanana
I think you'll find that was NATO that did that.
I think it is probably a bit of both.
Still it was pure folly to put pressure on Ukraine to decide.
Moreover economically the Ukraine was/still is heavily dependent on Russia. They were in many industrial areas the 'subconttracted low wages manufacturing site' for Russia. I doubt there is any viable plan in the drawer how to make Ukraine survive economically without the Russian market. If this breaks away completely you have got a massive problem. And the Ukraine has 45 Million inhabitants. This is 4 times bigger than Greece. So you better got a plan....
Seeing the level of competence on the EU administration level I would be deeply concerned for the Ukrainian people should they blindly follow the EU.