The invasion of Ukraine is no longer hanging in the sky. It has become a reality today. From ramming up Ukrainian Eastern frontiers to the deployment of troops, rounds of diplomatic talks, military drills in Belarus, threat and imposition of sanctions on Russia by the West, the world is at the brink of a large-scale global war.
Despite high-stakes diplomatic efforts and rounds of negotiations by the West with Moscow to deter direct military aggression on Ukraine, hopes were shattered in the early hours of Thursday, as explosions were heard in Kharkiv, Odesa, Mariupol and the capital city of Kyiv.
The lives of millions of Ukrainians in the frontline region in Donbas and all over the country is under huge security threat from all angles by the Russian military offensive on land and aerially. A humanitarian crisis is starring at the face of Continental Europe as a gradual breakdown of European security ignited.
Multiple sanctions to call the Russian Federation to order hopped in from the United States (US) and its allies days before the invasion stifling the Nord Stream II gasoline project which connects Russia to the European Union (EU). In the space of no time Vladimir Putin, the Russian state leader crossed the battle line, instituting a direct military action in Ukraine from all frontiers.
The post-Soviet era saw the former republics of Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic in 1999 and a host of others in 2004 which included Estonia, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Latvia, Slovenia, Slovakia and Romania becoming members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), a military alliance of Western countries founded in 1949 to counter communism and expand its ideas to other parts of Europe.
The eastward expansion of NATO into former Soviet space near the Russian frontiers is largely seen by Moscow as undermining its sovereignty and territorial integrity. A threat to its influence in the geopolitics of Eastern Europe.
Russia sees Ukraine and states in the Baltic as its “little brothers” and became alarmed with Kyiv’s long time pursuit of becoming a member of NATO.
The Ukrainian Revolution of 2014 which was a resultant effect of this West-East tussle over Ukraine was accompanied by an armed conflict between the government of Ukraine and pro-Russian separatists in the Donbas, Ukrainian Eastern frontier. A conflict that ultimately resulted in the creation of the People’s Republic of Luhansk and the People’s Republic of Donetsk in the Donbas. Both breakaway republics are heavily backed by Russia and has today received official recognition from the Kremlin.
In the heat of the political power-play in 2014 Crimea, a larger chunk of Ukrainian territory was annexed by Russia and the G-8, … a group of top economic giants dominated by Western countries in which Russia was a member then, meted heavy sanctions and Moscow was suspended indefinitely.
The Putin-led Russian government’s Invasion of Ukraine came at the backdrop of his insistence on a non-Ukrainian membership of NATO. On December 17, 2021 President Putin presented Kremlin’s security demands to the West, which included that NATO ceases all military activity in Eastern Europe and Ukraine and that the alliance never accept Ukraine or other Soviet nations as members.
All of those demands were watered down by NATO arguing that Ukraine is an independent state having full rights to dictate the course of its foreign policy objectives without Russia’s interference or undue pressure.
NATO’s insistence on its “open-door policy” and Russia’s stance on a non-Ukrainian membership of NATO has got the world to where it is today.
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