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Ukraine

Ukraine On The Brink: What Europe Must Do

Clashes between anti-government protesters clash and riot police in Kiev on Feb. 18
Clashes between anti-government protesters clash and riot police in Kiev on Feb. 18

-OpEd-

The Western world felt safe in the illusion that nothing would happen in Ukraine until the end of the Sochi Olympic Games. But it woke up on Wednesday to terrifying images of the bloody battlefield of central Kiev, literally ablaze.

After a three-month-long face-off between a pro-European opposition, which hasn't weakened despite the cold winter temperatures, and a government backed by Moscow that is deliberately allowing the situation to worsen, violence seems to have now reached a point of no-return.

The death of at least 25 people since Tuesday — with most of the victims among the protesters, and at least nine among the riot police — and hundreds of others wounded have led both camps to radicalize their positions. Today in Kiev, no one trusts anyone anymore.

The situation in the capital as well as in several outlying regions of Ukraine, is now highly unstable and increasingly perilous. A former Soviet Republic, Ukraine has among its 45 million-strong population many with a military background, trained for combat — not to mention stockpiles of weapons in circulation.

Deaf ears

The leaders of the opposition are divided over what course of action to follow, and are beginning to lose their grip on what is turning into a movement for insurrection. As for President Viktor Yanukovych — whose behavior doesn't cease to surprize — he chose to ignore Tuesday's phone calls from German Chancellor Angela Merkel and European Commission President José Manuel Barroso.

During a previous phone conversation in late January, after the first deaths since the beginning of the crisis, Barroso had threatened the Ukrainian president with sanctions if the repression continued. Of course, time has now come for the European Union to put its money where its mouth is. Targeted, personalized sanctions against those responsible for the crackdown and their assets deposited in European capitals — namely Vienna, London and Cyprus — are now vital.

The problem is that, although vital, these sanctions might turn out be too little too late. The crisis is increasingly spiralling out of control, for the Ukrainians and for the EU. Nobody, neither in Brussels nor Moscow, is now in a position to predict the outcome. But if we want to help Ukrainians find the path to dialogue, it is crucial that the European Union finally speaks with one firm voice.

The cacophony of reactions from the European capitals following last night's events is a disgrace. The question is not to make promises we cannot keep. It is to use all the means of pressure at our disposal to reaffirm, with power and unity, the core values of the Union. Indeed, those are the very same values for which thousands of Ukrainians have been fighting for the past three months.

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Society

Italy's Right-Wing Government Turns Up The Heat On 'Gastronationalism'

Rome has been strongly opposed to synthetic foods, insect-based flours and health warnings on alcohol, and aggressive lobbying by Giorgia Meloni's right-wing government against nutritional labeling has prompted accusations in Brussels of "gastronationalism."

Dough is run through a press to make pasta

Creation of home made pasta

Karl De Meyer et Olivier Tosseri

ROME — On March 23, the Italian Minister of Agriculture and Food Sovereignty, Francesco Lollobrigida, announced that Rome would ask UNESCO to recognize Italian cuisine as a piece of intangible cultural heritage.

On March 28, Lollobrigida, who is also Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's brother-in-law, promised that Italy would ban the production, import and marketing of food made in labs, especially artificial meat — despite the fact that there is still no official request to market it in Europe.

Days later, Italian Eurodeputy Alessandra Mussolini, granddaughter of fascist leader Benito Mussolini and member of the Forza Italia party, which is part of the governing coalition in Rome, caused a sensation in the European Parliament. On the sidelines of the plenary session, Sophia Loren's niece organized a wine tasting, under the slogan "In Vino Veritas," to show her strong opposition (and that of her government) to an Irish proposal to put health warnings on alcohol bottles. At the end of the press conference, around 11am, she showed her determination by drinking from the neck of a bottle of wine, to great applause.

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