As a citizen of a tiny state which wouldn’t last five minutes if a Great Power were to focus its guns and missiles on it, I am, completely on the side of Ukraine in this mad conflict, which has set the world back three decades.
We are back to the days of “The Cold War”. Nuclear alerts; economic sanctions; hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing from a war they did not start. Is this what we expected of the ending of the Cold War? More Cold War? What a bore!
Did the world fail to do its homework before uncorking the champagne bottles in 1989 and the years immediately following that year?
If we had done our homework, we would have sought to ring-fence the “new international political order” with railings so strong in nature that we would have had to use something harder than diamonds (!) to construct them; something like wurtzite boron nitride (w-BN) . Yep – we needed something unheard of by most people in the world, to preserve the state of “no-war” that was so unusual that it boggled the mind. But we didn’t know that at the time.
The world is now paying the price for its naivety. You see, when the Soviet Union was dissolved on December 25, 1991 (two years after the fall of the Berlin Wall), there were signs already that the world might be entering a rickety era, built on serious illusions.
Did the date – Christmas Day – not imply that “atheistic communism” had been replaced with Christianity in the former Soviet Union? Was this a realistic conclusion about a country with such a huge population? Francis Fukuyama even published a book entitled The End of History. Pray, the “end” of whose history?
The Western Powers did not scruple to make it clear to the new Russia that although, they no longer regarded Russia as a”hostile nation”, they would nevertheless treat Russia as a potential enemy!
So, Russia’s dissolution of the Warsaw Pact was greeted with the West’s absorption of almost all the Warsaw Pact’s members into NATO! [the North Atlantic Organisation!) But if the Warsaw Pact no longer existed, against whom was it necessary for NATO to defend the former members of the Pact? The West’s failure to answer that question truthfully is the root cause of the current crisis.
For one thing, Putin’s Russia read the cards and was not happy at what they revealed. Their belief was given red-hot credibility when the NATO allies, after a conference in Bucharest, stated, on 08 May. 2014, that: “We, the Heads of State and Government of the member countries of the North Atlantic Alliance, met today to enlarge our Alliance and further strengthen our ability to confront the [unspecified] existing andemerging 21st century security threats. …
“The principle of the indivisibility of Allied security is fundamental. A strong collective defence of our populations, territory and forces is the core purpose of our Alliance and remains our most important security task…..
Today, we have decided to invite Albania and Croatia to begin accession talks to join our Alliance…. The accession of these new members will strengthen security for all in the Euro-Atlantic area, and bring us closer to our goal of a Europe that is whole, free, and at peace….”
Then came this bombshell: “NATO welcomes Ukraine’s and Georgia’s Euro-Atlantic aspirations for membership in NATO. We agreed today that these countries will become members of NATO. Both nations have made valuable contributions to Alliance operations.”
Now, both Georgia and Ukraine were former constituent nations of the Soviet Union, together with Russia. They do not merely have borders with Russia. They were INSIDE the Soviet Union, whose leader wasRussia, and had been so for over 70 years!!
But NATO’S declaration of intent blithely went on: “We welcome the democratic reforms in Ukraine and Georgia and look forward to free and fair parliamentary elections in Georgia in May. …. We will now begin a period of intensive engagement with both at a high political level, to address the questions still outstanding pertaining to their applications [to join NATO].”
At the same time, however, the NATO Allies noted that: “While we are concerned by recent Russian statements and actions on key security issues of mutual concern, such as the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe, we stand ready to continue working with Russia as equal partners in areas of common concern… We should continue our common efforts in the fight against terrorism and in the area of non-proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction and their means of delivery.
“We urge Russia to engage actively in important cooperative offers that have been extended. …We reaffirm to Russia that NATO’s Open Door policy and current, as well as any future, NATO Missile Defence efforts are intended to better address the security challenges we all face… ..[We] reiterate that, far from posing a threat to our relationship, they offer opportunities to deepen levels of cooperation and stability.”
The NATO document revealed that the Alliance was not taking Russian agreement with its methodology for granted. So the document went to the extent of affirming that NATO supported “the territorial integrity, independence and sovereignty of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia and the Republic of Moldova” (neighbours of Russia). NATO promised: “We will continue to support efforts towards a peaceful settlement of these regional conflicts”. (This was a direct warning to Russia).
NATO versus Russia crises then unfolded as follows: 2014 – the seizure of Ukraine’s ‘breakaway regions’ – Donetsk and Luhansk – by Russian-backed rebels, in what came to be known as the “Crimean invasion”;
Following a so-called “ceasefire,” Ukrainian President VolodymyrZelenskyy, urged US President Joe Biden to allow Ukraine to “join NATO”. This request was met with hostility from Russian President Vladimir Mr Putin;
In January 2022, Russia began sending troops to Ukraine;
24 February 2022: Full Russian invasion of Ukraine launched. Fighting between Russia and Ukraine still going on.
The United States, the United Kingdom, and the European Union, have imposed economic sanctions against Russia, making it impossible, or difficult, for Russian banks – and certain targeted millionaires alleged to be close to President Putin – to carry out financial transactions in the Western countries, where most of them hide their money.
The UN Security Council met on 26 February to discuss the crisis. As expected, Russia, a permanent member of the Council, vetoed a resolution that demanded that Russia “immediately stop its attack on Ukraine and withdraw all troops”.
While 11 of the Council’s 15 members voted in favour of the resolution, with China, India, and the United Arab Emirates, abstaining.
Speaking to journalists, the UN Secretary-General, Mr António Guterres, stressed that while the United Nations had “not achieved its primary objective to end the war, we must never give up. We must give peace another chance. Soldiers need to return to their barracks. Leaders need to turn to the path of dialogue and peace”, he said.
Meanwhile, an estimated 200,000 people have left Ukraine, pouring into neighbouring countries, such as Poland and living under very stressful conditions.
Who would have believed that when the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, this chaotic situation would be what would greet the “new, Cold War-free. world?
BY CAMERON DUODU
