OPINION: Ukrainian Crisis Could Jeopardize US, EU

"We don’t have a consolidated Ukrainian state and it’s been remarkable how rapidly the state disappeared,” said Thomas E. Graham during a speech of the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs in New York.

Graham said the country’s economy is on the verge of a major fiscal crisis. "The continuation of the chaos and probably an increase of this chaos can lead to a very bad outcome not only for Ukraine, but more broadly for the United States and Europe.”

He added that a new Ukraine cannot be built unless cooperation among the US, EU and Russia is established.

"It is important, no matter what the differences are with Russia, at least to demonstrate that we understand to a certain extent why they think that way … and treat them with a type of respect that we treat any other big country,” Graham said.

He added that US policy towards Russia "should never be one-dimensional,” urging American diplomacy to construct a productive relationship with Moscow to work on European security together.

Relations between Washington and Moscow have soured over Russia’s stand on the ongoing Ukrainian crisis and the reunification of Crimea last month.

During his annual Q&A session last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that trust between Russia and the US had been lost to a great extent but it was not Moscow's fault. The restoration of trust between the countries would require a major break from the double political standards prevailing in the West, the Russian president said.

RIA Novosti