Russia-Ukraine crisis- war is no solution

 War will bring destruction, misery and loss of human lives and economy

Russian president Putin's order to launch special military operation in the Easter Ukrainian region of Donbass has once again raised the fears of a possible Russia-Ukraine war. It seems that Russian troops have entered into Eastern Ukraine to support the pro-Russian leadership of Russian speaking region.

Russia has already recognised  breakaway Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics in East Ukraine. 

The War between Russia and Ukraine will not solve anything. The war will bring more miseries, destruction and causalities of Ukrainian people. The war is likely to cause economic collapse in Ukraine. So the the war is not the solution to the current crisis.

Struggle in Ukraine is a drive for control by the US. Unfortunately, Russia by not advocating for neutrality is responding to this drive with its own strategy for controlling Ukraine.

The movement of Russian forces into eastern Ukraine is going to intensify the escalation  and urges that they immediately withdraw, alongside the resumption of diplomatic negotiations to resolve the crisis.

This dispute could and should be resolved peacefully, and that remains the only basis for a lasting settlement, rather than the imposition of military solutions.  That it has not been resolved is not, however, the responsibility of the Russian or Ukrainian governments alone.

The conflict is the product of thirty years of failed policies, including the expansion of NATO and US hegemony at the expense of other countries as well as major wars of aggression by the USA, Britain and other NATO powers which have undermined international law and the United Nations.

The Western governments has played a provocative role in the present crisis, talking up war, decrying diplomacy as appeasement and escalating arms supplies and military deployments to Eastern Europe.

If there is to be a return to diplomacy, as there should be, the imperialist powers including US and Britain should pledge to oppose any further eastward expansion of NATO and should encourage a return to the Minsk-2 agreement, already signed by both sides, by all parties as a basis for ending the crisis in relations between Ukraine and Russia.

Beyond that, there now needs to be a unified effort to develop pan-European security arrangements which meet the needs of all states, something that should have been done when the Warsaw Pact was wound up at the end of the Cold War.  The alternative is endless great power conflict with all the attendant waste of resources and danger of bloodshed and destruction.

Ukrainian government should arrest all the fascist leaders and outlaw their organisations. Without this action the Russian speaking population of Ukraine, Russia and many other countries will have no trust in Ukraine’s positions.

Kiev should negotiate with breakaway republics and introduce a federal autonomy system that fully respects the ethnic, religious and language rights of its minorities.

The only viable solution to the current crisis and to avoid a big scale war between Russia and Ukraine is a Neutral Ukraine.  Ukraine as a Permanent neutral state will end hostility between Russia and Ukraine and also NATO countries. The neutral Ukraine should be registered with the United Nations, and to be acknowledged as such by all relevant stakeholders, including Russia, the United States, the NATO and its member states.

China rightly pointed out that neutral Ukraine can solve the problem. As Victor Gao correctly pointed out in his article published in SCMP that "Becoming neutral doesn’t impinge on the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country in question. On the contrary, neutral nations like Switzerland, Austria and Sweden are shining examples of a commitment to the protection of sovereignty and territorial integrity on the one hand, and a devotion to peace, stability and development on the other."

Before 2014 the “Ukrainian Constitution specifically forbade the stationing of foreign troops in the country and ruled out membership in alliances like NATO.

The US did not respect Ukrainian neutrality and intervened to undermine it through its support for the Orange Revolution in 2004 and the Euromaidan protests and overthrow of the government in 2013-4. That is what has caused the current crisis.

                                                                       Khalid Bhatti