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Svetlana Voilova in front of her destroyed apartment in Krasnagorovka. (photo credit:SETH J. FRANTZMAN)

KRASNOGOROVKA - Svetlana Voilova stands by the gate to what was once her apartment in a long brick house in Eastern Ukraine. In late July 2017, it was hit by incendiary artillery shells and destroyed. Now all that remains of what were once nine apartments are the chimneys and shell of the home. One man wounded in the shelling died in a hospital and another is still recovering.

Voilovas home is on the Ukrainian government-run side of the cease-fire line established in February 2015, in an agreement between Russia, Ukraine and two separatist areas known as the Donetsk Peoples Republic and Luhansk Peoples Republic.

The 13-point plan was supposed to include a cease-fire and removal of heavy weapons from the line of contact between Ukrainian and separatist forces. It is monitored by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, or OSCE.

The conflict here has implications not only for relations between Russia and its neighbors, but also for NATO, European Union states and the United States, all of which have played a role in the conflict. The US, for instance, is reportedly in discussions to supply Ukraine with anti-tank weapons.

Despite the cease-fire, Ukrainian military personnel and civilians say that artillery shells regularly hit civilian buildings. From the 3rd of May, we had one wing of a school damaged and also the hospital, and in May, six apartments [were hit by shelling], says a military spokesman for the Ukrainian 92nd Brigade stationed in Krasnogorovka. In all, he details 41 buildings hit in shelling in this one town in recent months.

There is not one house here without damage, says Lena Meslitskaya, whose home is down the street from Voilovas burned apartment. These small brick homes surrounded by little vegetable gardens were built in the 1950s, when Stalin was in power. Meslitskaya has had to brick up and reinforce the windows from being shattered in the shelling.

For her mother, Maria, the war brings back memories of the Second World War. Born in 1928, Maria says she helped pick up the bodies of fallen soldiers after the battle of Kursk, the largest tank battle in history, which was fought in 1943.

Driving through towns that border the cease-fire line, evidence of the ongoing war is everywhere. Roofs are caved in from shells and some apartments that face toward Donetsk a city in separatist hands are deserted and windows shattered.

During the day the fighting is quiet, but at night gunfire is common. Heavier weapons, such as 120 mm. mortars, are also used, say Ukrainian officials. The OSCE says that both sides have committed violations over the years. In a tweet from the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine on August 4, OSCE deputy director Alexander Hug said, Its time for sides to listen to the people of Donbass and to cease fire.

Before the war, Alina Kosse was director of a district center for childrens art. She says her town of Marinka was well-known in the area for producing talented youth, including ensembles that performed throughout Eastern Europe. After the conflict began in 2014, many people left their homes and the arts center was closed for a time.

Every day is Russian roulette, she says, showing bullets that have landed on her home, 2 km. from the cease-fire line. Her windows are sandbagged. I receive shrapnel in my roof, and this is considered a safe area, she says.

With the presence of the army in the town for three years, Kosse has tried to integrate the community with the soldiers. This area of Ukraine is Russian-speaking and when the war broke out some of these communities were briefly controlled by separatists, which means locals are not always reconciled with the Ukrainian government.

Kosse, whose family came from Greece to this region in the 18th century, argues that people should not betray their country. Its about motivation, it is in peoples hearts. My ancestors settled here. They are buried here. Why would I betray my history and roots?

Convincing locals to support the army is a central mission along the cease-fire line. In Avdiivka, Lt.-Col. Aleksander Samarsky, deputy-commander of the 72nd Mechanized Brigade, says he works to combat Russian propaganda. That involves working closely with civilians. So if some schools and kindergartens are damaged, then our soldiers will go to them, and we try to examine the psychological state of children. They also work to remove land mines from local farms, he says.

All along the cease-fire line the burden on civilian life is difficult. People whose lives were centered on work across the line have shifted careers. Even though they can cross back and forth at several points along hundreds of kilometers of front line, the checkpoints and security checks take hours, locals say.

But many of the older people have lived through times of privation before under the Soviets. At a local lake a few kilometers from the conflict, hundreds of youth in skimpy bathing suits splash in the war.

Like in so many places in the world, life still goes on in the shadow of war.

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Ukraine in focus: 'There is not a house here not damaged by war' - The Jerusalem Post

Ukraine Needs $3B and a Culture Change Inside Higher Ed (blog) The Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine, Liliya Hrynevych, announced the need for 87 billion UAH (over US $3 billion) to reform the country's Soviet-modelled system of education. The Prime Minister, Volodymyr Groysman, conceded the accuracy of ...

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Ukraine Needs $3B and a Culture Change - Inside Higher Ed (blog)

There is an abundance of outrage in the United States about Russias alleged meddling in the 2016 presidential election. Multiple investigations are taking place, and Moscows conduct was a major justification for the sanctions legislation that Congress just passed. Some furious political figures and members of the media insist that the Putin governments interference constitutes an act of war. One especially agitated House member even compared it explicitly to the Pearl Harbor and 9/11 attacks.

Such umbrage might be more credible if the United States refrained from engaging in similar conduct. But the historical record shows that Washington has meddled in the political affairs of dozens of countriesincluding many democracies. An egregious example occurred in Ukraine during the Euromaidan Revolution of 2014.

Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych was not an admirable character. After his election in 2010, he used patronage and other instruments of state power in a flagrant fashion to the advantage of his political party. That high-handed behavior and legendary corruption alienated large portions of Ukraines population. As the Ukrainian economy languished and fell farther and farther behind those of Poland and other East European neighbors that had implemented significant market-oriented reforms, public anger at Yanukovych mounted. When he rejected the European Unions terms for an association agreement in late 2013, in favor of a Russian offer, angry demonstrators filled Kievs Independence Square, known as the Maidan, as well as sites in other cities.

Despite his leadership defects and character flaws, Yanukovych had been duly elected in balloting that international observers considered reasonably free and fairabout the best standard one can hope for outside the mature Western democracies. A decent respect for democratic institutions and procedures meant that he ought to be able to serve out his lawful term as president, which would end in 2016.

Neither the domestic opposition nor Washington and its European Union allies behaved in that fashion. Instead, Western leaders made it clear that they supported the efforts of demonstrators to force Yanukovych to reverse course and approve the EU agreement or, if he would not do so, to remove the president before his term expired. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), the ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, went to Kiev to show solidarity with the Euromaidan activists. McCain dined with opposition leaders, including members of the ultra right-wing Svoboda Party, and later appeared on stage in Maidan Square during a mass rally. He stood shoulder to shoulder with Svoboda leader Oleg Tyagnibok.

But McCains actions were a model of diplomatic restraint compared to the conduct of Victoria Nuland, the assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian Affairs. As Ukraines political crisis deepened, Nuland and her subordinates became more brazen in favoring the anti-Yanukovych demonstrators. Nuland noted in a speech to the U.S.-Ukraine Foundation on December 13, 2013, that she had traveled to Ukraine three times in the weeks following the start of the demonstrations. Visiting the Maidan on December 5, she handed out cookies to demonstrators and expressed support for their cause.

The extent of the Obama administrations meddling in Ukraines politics was breathtaking. Russian intelligence intercepted and leaked to the international media a Nuland telephone call in which she and U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Geoffey Pyatt discussed in detail their preferences for specific personnel in a post-Yanukovych government. The U.S-favored candidates included Arseniy Yatsenyuk, the man who became prime minister once Yanukovych was ousted from power. During the telephone call, Nuland stated enthusiastically that Yats is the guy who would do the best job.

Nuland and Pyatt were engaged in such planning at a time when Yanukovych was still Ukraines lawful president. It was startling to have diplomatic representatives of a foreign countryand a country that routinely touts the need to respect democratic processes and the sovereignty of other nationsto be scheming about removing an elected government and replacing it with officials meriting U.S. approval.

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America's Ukraine Hypocrisy - The National Interest Online (blog)

The U.S. Defense Department has recommended sending a package of lethal military aid to Ukraine worth about $50 million, the U.S. NBC television network has reported.

NBC published the report on August 4, citing three unnamed officials who said the recommendation has been forwarded to the White House for consideration.

A Pentagon spokesperson refused to confirm the report, but told NBC that "we haven't ruled anything out."

The reported weapons package purportedly would include Javelin shoulder-launched antitank missiles.

Russia annexed the Ukrainian region of Crimea in early 2014 and has provided extensive military, economic, and political to separatist militants in eastern Ukraine.

During a visit to Kyiv last month, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg asserted that Russia has "thousands" of troops on Ukrainian soil.

Although Russia denies military involvement in the conflict, the International Criminal Court (ICC) in November 2016 determined the conflict to be "an international armed conflict between Ukraine and the Russian Federation."

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Pentagon Reportedly Recommends Lethal Aid Package For Ukraine - RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty

When they have command of their senses, U.S. policymakers tend to think better of involving our nation deeply in Ukraine. So this weeks calls from lawmakers and policy wonks to arm Ukraine are a sign that the Trump and Russia scandals have concussed our political class.

Sending weapons to Kiev makes no more sense today than it did two years ago. You may recall the last time arming Ukraine was floated. In 2015, fearing a Western-backed putsch would permanently pull the country from Russias sphere of influence, Vladimir Putin took a gamble to preserve the Kremlins access to the Black Sea Fleet and annexed Crimea. Contrary to popular perception, this was not a demonstration of Kremlin strength, but a last resort. A truly strong Russia would have been able to keep Kiev under its influence and preserve its access to the Black Sea without force. In fact, in 2010 Putin used his popularity in Ukraine and Russias diplomatic might to help his preferred candidate, the fantastically corrupt grifter, Viktor Yanukovych, over the line in presidential elections.

Ukraine is a deeply divided country. Its most-recent presidential elections revealed astark conflict between the agrarian, Ukrainian-speaking north and west on one hand and the Russian-speaking south and east on the other. It is also not a particularly admirable state. Successive governments in Kiev have turned out to be ineffective and/or hopelessly corrupt. Even the Western-supported Viktor Yushchenko arguably usurped the role of Ukraines courts when dissolving Parliament in 2007. This is not a stable democracy.

It isalso a country many Russians see as deeply woven into their own history. Anti-Communist dissident Alexander Solzhenitsyn summed up some of the Russian attitude toward Ukraine when he wrote in 1990 that, All talk of a separate Ukrainian people existing since something like the ninth century and possessing its own non-Russian language is a recently-invented falsehood.

Poland ceded Kiev to Peter the Great in the 1690s. Needless to say, Russia has a much longer history with Ukraine than the United States can claim. Ukrainian membership in NATO periodically comes up, but Ukraine would be one of the most difficult countries for NATO to defend, while contributing little to the alliance, partly because its government is so indebted to the Russian state.

Yes, Putins government continues to foment pro-Russian unrest and separatism in the Donetsk region. But giving Ukraine some anti-tank weaponry would not meaningfully deter Moscows aggression. Russia is a massive land power, with over 20,000 tanks. The Russian state and the Russian public have both proven willing to lose troops in battle over the last two decades of vicious wars in Chechnya. Russia has many economic levers of influence over Ukraine, ones that the West could not help to match without now-unthinkable commitments of political will and ready cash. And sending arms to Kiev would play right into Putins narrative of Western meddling, which has been hugely effective in swaying its target audience: Russian-speaking Ukrainians see the U.S. as complicit in overturning a democratic result in 2015, even if their defense of the result is that they cheated to get it fair and square.

Ultimately, Ukraine is of peripheral interest to the United States and Western Europe even if annoying Russia has incredible appeal right now. Giving it arms, or extending to it a kind of quasi-membership in NATO might irritate Russia, but it would also create a new dependent for the U.S. And it could embolden Ukrainian nationalists to do something foolish, the way that Mikhail Sakashvilli jeopardized Georgia in 2007 by acting provocatively once he thought he had the backing of the West.

Punishing Russia is obviously at the top of our leaders minds. But arming Ukraine would mean escalating tensions precisely where American commitments can do the least good and are not at all credible. There are better ways to get Vladimir Putins goat. We should consider them, instead.

READ MORE: Trump and Putins Art of the Ukrainian Deal Ukraines Independence Is Under Threat Trump and Russia

Michael Brendan Dougherty is a senior writer at National Review.

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Don't Arm Ukraine - National Review