Opinion | Ukraine: a realistic way for Russia and West to defuse the crisis

Name: Amid Russian troop build-up in Belarus, Ukrainian soldiers doubt good result in Kremlin-US talks
Uploaded: 2022-01-28T17:30:17.000Z
Duration: 2 min 27 s
Description: Amid Russian troop build-up in Belarus, Ukrainian soldiers doubt good result in Kremlin-US talks

The two sides must find a way to agree that Ukraine can remain open to both spheres of influence – but neither can claim to be drawing Ukraine into their orbit

If Russia were to accept the rule of neutrality and adhere to it, the West should promise not to admit Ukraine into Nato

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Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a military parade in Red Square in Moscow on May 9. Photo: Reuters

Thomas O. Falk

Published: 1:30am, 29 Jan 2022Updated: 3:29am, 29 Jan 2022

Russia and the West continue to spar verbally over the situation in Ukraine. While both sides, despite numerous rounds of talks and negotiations, remain worlds apart, they share one common approach: realism. Herein lies the key to ending the crisis.

These past few weeks have seen a circle of demands by the West being met with counterdemands by Russia, and vice versa. Despite various diplomatic efforts, progress has not been made.

Both sides remain set in their respective points of view, which are diametrically opposed, and yet they share a common goal: influence in Ukraine.

It is no secret that Russia’s modus operandi has been a revisionist policy based on historical claims, spheres of influence and areas of interest. Not in terms of a Soviet Empire 2.0 but, rather, in the sense of political allegiance and the power to influence political decision-making processes in Ukraine (and Georgia and Moldova, for that matter).

Since 2007, President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly emphasised his agenda, that Ukraine ought to return to being under Russia’s influence, true to the argument of US president Jimmy Carter’s national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski, who once said: “It cannot be stressed strongly enough that without Ukraine, Russia ceases to be an empire, but with Ukraine suborned and then subordinated, Russia automatically becomes an empire.”

02:27

Amid Russian troop build-up in Belarus, Ukrainian soldiers doubt good result in Kremlin-US talks

For the West, the aforementioned remains rightfully unacceptable. It still adheres to the Paris Charter of 1990, which ended the East-West conflict and enshrined principles for a foreign policy including the inviolability of borders, non-use of military force and free elections.

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