Twenty-five years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the hero of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, decided to revive a Cold War situation in the world. So far, both the United States of America and the European Union have voiced their concern.

Thanks to Vladimir Putin, Ukraine is now on its knees. Russian armoured vehicles have kept rolling into eastern Ukraine while Russian military flights increased their air activity around Europe. In the last few months alone, NATO warplanes have had to scramble approximately 400 times in response to this defiance by the Russians.

There is no question that by annexing Crimea and arming separatists in eastern Ukraine, Mr Putin has done irreparable damage to East-West relations - and to his country as well, which now finds itself isolated and in economic trouble.

The crisis between Ukraine and Russia has now reached an impasse. The Ukrainian economy is in a terrible shape because of the great damage done by Mr Putin. The Ukrainian currency has lost almost half its value against the dollar. The industrial centres of Donetsk and Luhansk are in separatist hands and coal mines have also shut down.

The ceasefire signed in Minsk, Belarus, last September never really took hold, but at least it provided a cover for efforts to reduce the level of fighting and focus on stabilizing and reforming the Ukrainian economy as a prelude to a serious, long-term search for a resolution of the crisis. In the meantime, the US and the EU have made it abundantly clear, and correctly so, that they are holding President Vladimir Putin of Russia responsible for this state of affairs.

That said that it is now of the utmost importance that officials in Kiev, and more specifically President Petro Poroshenko, have great responsibilities they must shoulder. Corruption is to be tackled with immediate effect and eradicated completely and a credible economic and political strategy drawn up to avoid Ukraine's collapse, which is looming in the distance.

Jos Edmond Zarb

Birkirkara