The danger of the crisis pervades everyone

Appeasement and negotiations... the only path out of the Ukrainian crisis

  • Biden is required to provide assistance to facilitate the diplomatic work undertaken by Paris and Berlin.

    Reuters

  • Putin's demand that Ukraine remain outside NATO was ignored as a violation of the alliance's "principle" of accepting whoever it wanted.

    AFP

  • A father and his family in one of the many homelessness cases caused by the Ukraine crisis.

    Reuters

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War is a disaster, a crime, and a defeat as well.

And the citizens of the world should reject Russian President Vladimir Putin's decision to abandon diplomacy by attacking and conducting "special military operations" in Ukraine.

These operations are considered a violation of international law, and spark a dangerous escalation of violence.

We must urge all parties to immediately cease hostilities, de-escalate and seek a diplomatic solution, to mitigate the risks of all-out war and a terrible and direct conflict between the two largest nuclear powers.

diplomatic solution

The path to peace and a solution for all parties to the crisis in Ukraine lies in seeking a solution through diplomatic means, respecting international law and international borders.

We cannot defend what President Putin has done, but the responsibility for this crisis is shared by many.

Many have repeatedly warned that expanding the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to Russia's borders would generate fierce friction, and criticized the alliance's blanket rejection of Russia's security proposals, denouncing the arrogance that prompted US officials to assert that they had the right to do whatever they liked in various fields. around the world, even in places like Ukraine that are more important to other countries than they are to the United States.

In fact, the expansion of NATO provided the appropriate environment for this crisis, a fact that the American media ignores.

There is a certain amount of senselessness and irresponsibility in offering NATO membership to a country like Ukraine, when many successive US presidents have shown they have no intention of going to war for Ukraine's defense.

Instead, Putin's demand that Ukraine remain outside NATO was scorned as a violation of the alliance's "principle" of accepting anyone it wanted to join.

One urgent consequence of this has been to encourage irresponsibility in Ukraine as well.

Volodymyr Zelensky promised voters when he ran for president in 2019 that he would pursue a peaceful path in order to end the war in the Donbass region.

But when he came to the presidency, his government refused to implement the terms of the Minsk Agreement, signed by Russia, Ukraine, France, Germany, and the European Union, which in essence would guarantee Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity, in exchange for Ukraine remaining neutral.

encourage hawks

Sadly, however, Russia's illegal actions will embolden hawks on all sides to resort to arms.

At the present time, strategists are calling for a doubling of the US military budget, in order to seize the "strategic opportunity" to drain Putin in Ukraine, and at the same time push the Europeans to build their own armaments.

While the drums of war are beating, we must not forget the human horror that will result, the many displacements, and the impact of sanctions not only on Russia but also on citizens in Europe, the United States, and elsewhere in the world.

The Ukrainians in the east of the country are already living a lot of suffering, and if the Russians occupy the separatist republics, they will find themselves living in confrontation and continuous war, which has been inflamed as a direct result of the position of the United States and NATO.

If the Russians occupied all of Ukraine, they would face a guerrilla war more costly than the catastrophe inflicted on the Soviet Union in Afghanistan.

In fact, the “punitive” sanctions imposed by the West on Russia will cause it great harm, as well as the oligarchs, and ordinary Russians, but they will also harm Europe, the United States, and the entire world economy.

And the rise in oil prices to more than $100 a barrel is just a harbinger of that.

Cold War Revival

The revival of the Cold War will damage domestic budgets in both the United States and Europe, draining resources and reducing concerns to address important issues such as tackling the Corona pandemic, the climate crisis, and inequality.

What humanity needs now is not a rush to weapons and support for the hawks, but a return to intensive negotiations at the United Nations, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and among the signatories to the Minsk Protocols.

It is time to recognize that there are still options for this that, if resorted to in good faith, can bring this crisis to a peaceful conclusion.

This crisis can and must be resolved by declaring Ukraine's neutrality and the withdrawal of Russian forces from Donbass.

Until this conclusion, we must commend the restraint shown by France and Germany, and support in particular the efforts of French President Emmanuel Macron to end this crisis.

Both NATO and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe should take the lead in opening negotiations on a new security architecture in Europe, in which Russia participates, rather than poses a threat to it, and reassures its neighbors rather than the current hostilities.

This would put a logical end to NATO expansion, and a return to CFE and the ballistic missile treaties.

US President Joe Biden must admit that American interests in Ukraine will not be greater than his interests with Russia, that the United States and "NATO" will not win the war on the ground against Russia in its own backyard, and that it is unlikely that sanctions will prevail, and perhaps even follow. damage to the American economy.

We should urge President Biden and his administration to encourage and provide assistance, if necessary, to facilitate the difficult, but necessary, diplomatic work of Paris and Berlin.

• All parties should be urged to immediately cease hostilities, de-escalate and seek a diplomatic solution, to mitigate the risks of all-out war and the terrible and direct conflict between the two largest nuclear powers.

The Ukrainians in the east of the country are already experiencing a lot of suffering, and if the Russians occupied the separatist republics, they would find themselves living in confrontation and a continuous war, which escalated as a direct result of the position of the United States and NATO.

If the Russians occupied all of Ukraine, they would face a guerrilla war more costly than the catastrophe inflicted on the Soviet Union in Afghanistan.

Katrina Vanden Heuvel ■ American writer interested in the Russian issue

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