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The Tenth Kyiv Security Foruman important foreign affairs conference conducted annually by the Open Ukraine Foundationoccurred on April 6-7. Headed by Ukraines former Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk and his wife Terezia, the conference underscored an important message: the need for the West to stay engaged and maintain security in the borderlands between Russia and Central Europe, particularly in Ukraine, the most important country in Eastern Europe between the Baltic and Black seas.

This year, the tenth anniversary event was titled "Old Conflicts and New Trends: Strategies for a Changing World. For Ukraine today, security challenges are defined by the continuing war in the east, the occupation of Crimea, the new US administrations efforts to find its own voice, and Europes ongoing crises and weaknesses.

The conference was crowded with important figures, underscoring its high profile. President Petro Poroshenko, Prime Minister Volodymyr Groisman, and Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin all delivered policy addresses. The prime ministers of Estonia, Lithuania, and LatviaJri Ratas, Saulius Skvernelis, and Mris Kuinskis, respectivelyalso spoke. Deputy Secretary General of NATO Rose Gottemoeller represented the Alliance, and US Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch gave a speech.

Russia was represented by three opposition figures: former Duma member Ilya Ponomarev, who voted against the annexation of Crimea and now lives in Kyiv; Dr. Lilia Shevtsova, a veteran policy analyst and former senior fellow at the Brookings Institution; and Professor Andrey Zubov, who was fired from the Moscow State Institute for International Relations for opposing Russian aggression in Crimea.

The Forum opened on the day the European Parliament voted to allow Ukrainians visa-free travel to the European Union. However, European countries still lack a unified position on Ukraine, which plays into Moscows hands. Some of the populist and extreme right parties in France and Italy, such as Marine Le Pens National Front, and Italys Five Star Movement, have taken pro-Russian positions.

The Forum revealed three important messages. First, Ukraines will is strong. Every Ukrainian speaker at the event expressed a commitment to fightand diefor their country. Answering a question from the public, senior Slovak and Lithuanian defense officials both said that in their countries, people would sacrifice their lives for independence. But attendees expressed doubts whether Western Europeans are equally committed.

Second, the Intermariumthe borderlands area from the Baltic to the Black Sea, which includes the Baltic states, Belarus, Ukraine, and Moldovais consolidating. The interaction between Poles, Ukrainians, and Balts is at all-time high. Romanians and Bulgarians are also crucial to buttress this strategic area, which is standing up to Russian pressure. However, their ability to resist Moscows ambitions depends on NATO and US support.

What Europe and the United States are missing in Ukraine and the neighborhood is a clear understanding that both history and geography are dictating Russias push west. That push started in the fifteenth century with Ivan III, who occupied the Novgorod Republic, the only democracy that has ever existed on Russian soil. What ensued was a bloody purge and relentless expansion to the west, which included wars against Sweden under Ivan the Terrible a century later. In the eighteenth century, the Russian Empire eventually destroyed the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and with it, Ukrainian Cossack independent proto-states.

Russia will always treat countries to its west, including Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, and the Baltic states, as buffers at best, and zones for economic, security, and cultural expansion at worst. Western decision makers always need to keep this in mind.

Part of the EUs relative disengagement comes from a lack of funding. European security budgets, with a few exceptions, are still below the 2014 Wales NATO summit target of 2 percent of GDP. Without increased defense funding, Europeans have to rely on the United States, which currently has other prioritiesfrom North Korea and the South China Sea to Iran and Syria. European countries, especially Germany, need to begin funding their own eastern borderland security efforts.

Third, and most important, Western policies toward Ukraine need American leadership. The Kyiv Security Forum demonstrated that Germany, Italy, France, and the UK have different priorities when it comes to Russia and Ukraine. Without the Trump administrations clear understanding of where the US national interests and priorities lie and its policy leadership and implementation, in terms of both NATO and its allies cooperation, Ukraine could become a flashpoint with far-reaching implications.

The Tenth Kyiv Security Forum accomplished many things; above all, it clarified that Ukraine is committed to a long-term fight, but that a gathering even as well organized as this one is no replacement for either political leadership or military power. Those need to be provided by the United States and its NATO allies.

Ariel Cohen is a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and principal of International Market Analysis Ltd. He tweets @Dr_Ariel_Cohen.

The article was first published by The Atlantic Council.

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More Solidarity with Ukraine Needed, Say Speakers at the Kyiv Security Forum - Huffington Post

In the cold, early morning, Red Cross volunteers bring wood and start a fire at the small temporary building that provides warmth and comfort on the edge of the front line.

On the other bank of the Siverskyi Donets river, at a similar building, other Red Cross volunteers do the same thing for people on the other side.

The line of contact between Lugansk in Ukraine and Stanytsia Luhanska, just across the Siverskyi Donets river, is a vital road of commerce. For years, villagers to the river's north have been growing vegetables and fruits and preparing meat and dairy products to be sold in Lugansk, a city of 400,000. Today the products can cross the line only at this checkpoint. Men for hire help those who cannot carry their goods over the bridge's broken steps.

"Here people are accustomed to paying for everything," said Nina, a Ukrainian Red Cross Society volunteer. "That is why when a queue builds up in front of our trailer, we invite people to come in, warm up and have a hot tea. Not everyone agrees, as they do not believe it is free."

About 6,000 people cross the checkpoint a day, 300 of whom stop at the Lugansk heating point. It is a busy season for the volunteers: many visitors are cold, others need a snack, and some have diabetes and need to administer a shot of insulin.

"I have a sister living in Lugansk," said Nelia, a 73-year-old resident of Stanytsia Luhanska. She takes off her gloves and warms her hands by holding a glass of hot tea. "I visit her every week, and I certainly stop by here, both on my way there and back. In autumn I was afraid. What would I do in winter at minus 20 degrees, just freeze? And I never dreamt that someone would put this little house where one can get warm and drink tea."

The volunteers offer health care, tell travelers what documents are required to cross to the non-government controlled territory, and often explain that the visitors can get assistance from the ICRC.

Five hours to the west, the same line of contact separates Svitlodarsk, a town controlled by the Ukrainian government, from Debaltseve. The town is small enough that most people had the phone number to the hospital memorized. During hostilities it treated the wounded and those who were simply scared.

"I remember once we took to the hospital a man whose house had been hit by a shell," said Olena, a nurse. "He was paralyzed with fear, screaming all the time. We did our best to help him all in vain. He responded to our questions with the same thing: 'It's scary, it's scary!'"

"And once a shell landed next to the hospital," her colleague, Natalia, continued. "And we carried the wounded to the basement. It was difficult and dangerous, and we had to act very fast. And then, when every second counted, a woman clutched in my hand and shouted: 'Just don't leave me!' That's when I realized that each hospital should have a psychologist." One recent frosty morning Olena, Natalia and 11 hospital staff met with an ICRC team conducting trainings in psychosocial support. Farhana Javid, an ICRC delegate, muffled up her face with a scarf and joked about her fear of Ukrainian frost. What if her eyes suddenly freeze at minus 20? The cold weather chit chat soon gave way to a story about how friendly Ukrainians can be.

"Here people are very responsible and strive to help each other," Farhana said. "That is why we need to explain to them what stress is and how to deal with it. Only after that they will be effective in helping others."

The hospital staff admit they were initially skeptical about such a training.

"You know, we used to be pretty callous," Natalia confessed. "A patient would come, and instead of telling about his problem he starts sharing his feelings. It was just annoying. Now we understand that people need to speak out, that all the people here are under stress."

Doctors today do not face the complicated medical cases they saw during hostilities. But psychological needs have increased. The line of control lies within view of the hospital, and residents are in constant fear of renewed fighting. The hospital staff see violent outbursts from patients, but others offer only apathy or bitterness. The ICRC trainers take this into account when talking about how to identify and help those suffering from stress.

In the small towns of eastern Ukraine, going to the psychologist is not a common practice. Yet, there are no in-house psychologists in the hospital, and that is why the doctors and nurses listened carefully to everything the ICRC trainers said.

"I remember sitting in the basement, the shells exploding somewhere on the ground. So scary!" Olena says. "And then people approached me and started telling something, I thought: 'What do they want from me?' It is already so scary now, and they approach me! But now I understand everything, and most importantly, I know how to manage these processes."

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Ukraine: A warm room and hot tea at a contentious checkpoint - ReliefWeb