Ukraine may well be the geopolitical prize nobody can afford to win.
"The real question now is how much of the burden of dealing with Ukraine is going to be European and how much the Europeans are going to be able to slough off onto the American taxpayer," said Wayne Merry, a scholar at the American Foreign Policy Council. Right now, he said, Ukraine is fairly low on Washington's list of priorities amid bigger problems in Syria, the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and nuclear negotiations with Iran.

Ukraine's acting finance minister, Yuri Kobolov, says the country needs $35 billion to cover this year and next. He is looking to Europe or the United States for help, hopefully within the next two weeks.
(vbo: two weeks, hahahaha, what an optimist) ...Jonathan Adelman, professor of international relations at the University of Denver, said he sees little chance of the Washington coming through at a time of budgetary difficulties, highlighted this week when Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel proposed to shrink the U.S. Army to its smallest size since the 1940s.

"There's going to be no enthusiasm here for the tens of billions of dollars it would take to bail Ukraine out," Adelman said.
...EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said Tuesday that the EU and its member nations are ready to help bridge Ukraine's short-term financing needs until a new government can negotiate a full-fledged assistance package with the International Monetary Fund. She said it was important that Russia also help out.
(vbo: as I said Ashton is my girl ...I can't decide if she is stupid or just and ugly arrogant bitch...Russians to help? Helloouu...or they simply think that Russians are stupid...?)
... "An approach providing Ukraine with breathing room and time is more likely to create a favorable environment for a positive outcome from Ukraine's next stage. Such a policy would serve the interests of Russia, the EU and the United States."
(vbo: if it is not too late already it soon will be too late for positive outcome...at least for Ukrainians)

Merry said the Europeans may not have understood what they had unleashed by courting Ukraine.

"A lot of people in a lot of those capitals really --Berlin and Paris to name two -- think that the European Union got too far out in front of itself, didn't think through what it was doing, got involved in what was a zero-sum position with Russia," Merry said.