A new Op-Ed by Alyona Getmanchuk, Director of the New Europe Center written for The New York Times on the Ukraine’s perspective on the international negotiations on Ukraine and the asks of Ukraine for the West in face of Putin’s military build-up.
Here are the key messages from Alyona Getmanchuk’s Op-Ed:
- While the talks were being conducted in Geneva and Brussels, Russia began transferring military helicopters to Ukraine’s borders and engaged in new military drills in Russian regions neighboring Ukraine. This came after Moscow massed around 100, 000 troops on the border; it is also reportedly moving military equipment and personnel toward the border from other parts of Russia. Western leaders should avoid a situation where avenues for dialogue outnumber avenues to deter Russia — and that’s the situation right now
- Of course, diplomacy is critical, and we all know how realpolitik often runs the show. But it’s also naïve to assume that Russia will be negotiating in good faith. The United States, for instance, has accused Moscow of sending saboteurs into eastern Ukraine to stage an incident that could provide Mr. Putin with a pretext for invasion. So the talks should have been accompanied by clear actions to enhance Ukraine’s resilience, like providing additional security and military assistance — specifically, air defense.
Ukraine is not asking for the West to defend it. Rather, it is asking for help to prepare for this fight by bolstering our military capacity. - The best way to defend Ukraine is to defend Western doctrines and values, including the “no spheres of influence” principle barring large countries from dominating their neighbors and NATO’s “open door” policy of welcoming new applicants to the alliance.
- Close cooperation between Ukraine and the alliance — like military exercises, which enhance the Ukrainian Army’s ability to work with NATO member states and also remind Russia that Ukraine is not alone — should continue.
- Now, Ukrainians are increasingly preoccupied by the prospect of a new invasion. They don’t believe the talks with Mr. Putin will be productive, which means Russia will see military action as the only way to bring Ukraine back into Moscow’s sphere of influence. Updates on the diplomatic talks dominate the evening news and animate Facebook conversations. As one of our polls has shown, a majority of Ukrainians are convinced that Mr. Putin would continue to needle Ukraine even if it gave up its hopes of joining NATO or the European Union in the future.
- Western leaders at the negotiating table should remember that Ukrainians deserve to be able to plan their lives according to their dreams, not according to Mr. Putin’s imperialistic obsessions. And that Ukraine’s failure would be not just a win for Mr. Putin’s regime but also a blow to global democracy.
The full text is available via the link: https://nyti.ms/3qyxSaC
