From the piece below I highlight these consecutive paragraphs:
"The main hotspots or focal points of the Ukraine crisis are the
political position of the Donbas region, control of Crimea, and
the future of Odesa. Ukraine must not be made a landlocked
country. Russia´s access to the black sea through Crimea cannot be
denied. It is not impossible to evolve a mechanism to address
these problems.
Both parties must understand and accept the fact that ultimately
there is no military solution to the Ukraine crisis. Hence the
process for a diplomatic solution with a give-and-take mentality
should be started right now. Delays will only increase the
suffering not only of the people of Ukraine and Russia but also of
the entire world. Are not Zelensky, Putin, Biden, and all others
aware of this grim fact?
However, all are not adversely affected by this war. A tiny
minority who represents war and energy industries are
beneficiaries of this crisis. Sometimes, wars are created and
patronized by them. And they have very powerful lobbies in places
like the White House and the Kremlin.
Yes, there are some differences between Eastern and Western
values and clashes between civilizations and political systems.
But this ideological point has been blown up out of proportion.
The real issue is who will dominate the world economically and
militarily. The US seems to be feeling an existential crisis about
its overwhelmingly dominant position in world politics and
military might. The US together with its allies does not feel
comfortable with the rising power of the Sino-Russian axis. They
want to stop it. Russia has become its immediate target. If they
cannot succeed in Russia, they will not be able to contain China,
their ultimate objective. In that case, their sphere of influence
elsewhere will also be diminished."
https://countercurrents.org/2023/01/ukraine-crisis-must-come-out-of-the-impasse/
in
World
— by
Anisur Rahman — 06/01/2023
No end to the Ukraine War is in sight. Peace and solutions to the
problems have been made conditional to too many big “ifs” and
“when’s”. Wrong calculations from both sides have led to the
present stalemate. And instead of looking for a reasonable and
mutually acceptable way out, they are trying to achieve a
unilateral victory that is not to come. Continuous
miscalculations are leading the situation in the direction of no
return. They are stuck. And with them, the whole world has become
stuck in unprecedented economic hardship, and dangerous military
uncertainty.
Xenophobic Russia, chauvinistic Ukraine, and the dangerously
opportunistic West – all are responsible for this crisis and
impasse. Russia is yet to accept the dismemberment of its empire.
They still dream of a greater Russian entity encompassing at least
some of the old Soviet units. Do not they see that people with the
same ethnicity, language and religion live in separate sovereign
states everywhere in the world? Moscow had to accept the
dissolution of the Soviet Union because it collapsed mainly from
within. No doubt, outside factors had an auxiliary role. However,
Kremlin had hoped that Russia would dominate the breakaway
republics and that the newly formed states would remain
subservient to her. They must come out of this hegemonistic
mentality.
The chauvinistic attitude has made Ukraine blind, arrogant, and
careless. They were a minority during the Soviet period. Their
identity was suppressed. Russian was the dominant language. The
Ukrainians were suppressed in the Soviet Union, though the
flourishment of Kyiv at that time cannot be denied. Ironically,
the Russians in the Donbas areas of Ukraine and their Russian
language are being suppressed in Ukraine. That resulted in
widespread discontent in those areas. Russia took the advantage of
the situation. They had some genuine concerns for the ethnic
Russians living in Donbas and at the same time, they felt that
their strategic situation had been threatened particularly when
Kyiv made a move for NATO membership with Washington´s tacit
initiative. Ukraine avoided an all-out preemptive strike from
Russia when Minsk-2 Agreement was signed between the two parties.
One of the main features of the agreement was constitutional
reform in Ukraine including decentralization, with specific
mention of Donetsk and Luhansk. It implies autonomy in those
regions. Besides, the treaty had a specific provision for holding
elections in Donetsk and Luhansk. After a few years of wrangling,
Ukraine abandoned the Minsk Agreement citing the reason that it
would disintegrate and destroy the country although, in the first
place, they signed it with the full pledge of its implementation.
A very interesting revelation was made by former German chancellor
Angela Markel that Minsk 2 Agreement was a tactical device
designed to give Ukraine adequate time to prepare for eventual war
with Russia. It means they were not sincere about the Agreement
from the very beginning. Their intention was to buy time for war
preparation. Very interestingly, Germany and France devised this
initiative. Russian President Vladimir Putin, the then Ukrainian
President Petro Poroshenko, German Chancellor Angela Markel, and
French President Francoise Hollande attended the pre-agreement
summit held in 2015 in Minsk, the capital of Belarus. The US had
even bigger support for Ukraine. This is the second time Germany
deceived and betrayed Russia. Everybody remembers how Russia
became the victim of betrayal by Adolf Hitler during World War 2.
The Ukraine War will definitely worsen the relationship between
Moscow and Berlin. Had there been no ulteriorly designed Minsk
Agreement Ukraine would have been conquered by Russia long ago.
Without Western help, Ukraine is no match for Russia.
Russia cannot defeat the combined forces of Ukraine and Western
powers headed by the USA. Similarly, Ukraine and its allied forces
cannot defeat nuclear-powered Russia. More and more advanced
weapons are being used with the continuation of the war. There is
a limit. One cannot go for the nuclear option. That will be a
collective suicide, the end of the world.
The US must understand that Russia will not accept Ukraine´s NATO
membership. The reasons have been discussed elaborately. One group
argues that since Ukraine is an independent country so it can
freely decide to join any military alliance or any other
organization. Have they forgotten the Cuban crisis of the ‘60s?
Was not Cuba then an independent state? Yet Russia (the then
Soviet Union) was not allowed to deploy missiles in Cuba which was
requested by Havana. Because, the USA said “no” and threatened
nuclear confrontation.
The main hotspots or focal points of the Ukraine crisis are the
political position of the Donbas region, control of Crimea, and
the future of Odesa. Ukraine must not be made a landlocked
country. Russia´s access to the black sea through Crimea cannot be
denied. It is not impossible to evolve a mechanism to address
these problems.
Both parties must understand and accept the fact that ultimately
there is no military solution to the Ukraine crisis. Hence the
process for a diplomatic solution with a give-and-take mentality
should be started right now. Delays will only increase the
suffering not only of the people of Ukraine and Russia but also of
the entire world. Are not Zelensky, Putin, Biden, and all others
aware of this grim fact?
However, all are not adversely affected by this war. A tiny
minority who represents war and energy industries are
beneficiaries of this crisis. Sometimes, wars are created and
patronized by them. And they have very powerful lobbies in places
like the White House and the Kremlin.
Yes, there are some differences between Eastern and Western
values and clashes between civilizations and political systems.
But this ideological point has been blown up out of proportion.
The real issue is who will dominate the world economically and
militarily. The US seems to be feeling an existential crisis about
its overwhelmingly dominant position in world politics and
military might. The US together with its allies does not feel
comfortable with the rising power of the Sino-Russian axis. They
want to stop it. Russia has become its immediate target. If they
cannot succeed in Russia, they will not be able to contain China,
their ultimate objective. In that case, their sphere of influence
elsewhere will also be diminished.
The stalemate and uncompromising attitude lead nowhere except
further destruction, heavy tolls on both sides, and infliction of
further miseries on ordinary people all over the world. However,
the US is in an advantageous position in one consideration. It has
remained far away from the actual war fields almost every time. In
most cases, it has created war or has been involved in wars by
maintaining safe geographical distance. So, their casualties had
remained comparatively low. Similar is the case here in the
Ukraine-Russia conflict. They are far off from the spot.
One way of breaking the deadline is to make a compromise and
accept the reality that none can defeat the opposite side
unilaterally. Russia has a huge territorial advantage and Ukraine
together with its US-European ally has economic and military
superiority. It is a no-win situation for both sides. The other
solution to the problem is waking up of the ordinary people
adversely affected by this insane war. When people are pushed back
to the wall they are forced to counter-attack. They revolt. It is
better to sit down and solve the problem through negotiations
before it goes beyond control.
Anisur Rahman is a senior Bangladeshi journalist
living in Sweden.
