Speaking on PBS NewsHour following President Yanukovych’s flight from Kiev, Nation contributing editor Stephen Cohen urged the US to promote “a stable and united Ukraine, at peace with itself and not trapped in an either or proposition between Russia and Europe.” There’s a serious threat, Cohen warned, that Ukraine will split between two governments, one led by the EU-leaning protesters in Kiev and another headed by a Russia-leaning Yanukovych government in the country’s east. What’s more, the upheaval could stoke Putin’s fears that Western-allied forces might try to destabilize Russia, prompting the Russian president to crack down harder on dissenters within his own country.
—Justine Drennan