The president recalls the country’s “resistance” to Russia’s 2014 annexation of the peninsula, while Putin lashes out at NATO for its “participation” in the war
Ukrainian President Volodímir Zelensky has again made Crimea a precondition for an end to the war in Ukraine. The president has expressed his belief that peace “will come” in the former republic with “the return” of the peninsula Russia annexed in 2014. This is stated in a post on social networks on the occasion of this Sunday’s celebration of the Day of Resistance against the Russian occupation of Crimea.
“Nine years ago, Russian aggression began in Crimea. Having returned to Crimea, we will restore peace. This is our country. Our city. Our history. We will return the Ukrainian flag to all corners of Ukraine,” said the Ukrainian president, whose intelligence services have reported that Russian troops stationed on the peninsula have begun building fortifications to defend the annexed territory.
Zelensky signed the decree on February 26, 2020, officializing the “day of resistance” for the occupation, an episode that in 2014 sparked the greatest tension between Russia and the West since the Cold War era. Moscow launched a “soft” invasion of the territory, by the definition of several analysts, allowing it to take control with hardly any confrontations after the protests that divided Ukraine between pro-Russians (for greater integration with Russia) and Europeans (in favor of strengthening of the relationship with the EU). The protests, popularly known as the Euromaidan, eventually ended with President Yanukovych’s administration.
His fall led to the Crimean parliament appointing a pro-Russian prime minister, while the Kremlin increased the number of troops at its bases across the peninsula and instituted access controls with the rest of Ukraine. Armed groups also took over the airports and the city of Sevastopol. Moscow justified the deployment on the presumed need to defend the pro-Russian population against the most radical Ukrainian nationalist movements. An argument very similar to the one Putin used a year ago to order the invasion of Donbas.
Because in reality, history repeats itself. On March 16, 2014, a referendum on Crimea’s accession to Russia, organized without any kind of observer and considered illegal by the West, resulted in 95% of the population being in favor of the annexation; a balance and a consultation that is very reminiscent of the process that followed a few months ago to annex the territories of Donetsk and Lugansk to the Russian Federation.
The memory of the Ukrainians’ resistance to the annexation of Crimea comes two days after the first anniversary of the invasion of the former republic. The intelligence community’s prediction that Russia had not gathered enough troops or weapons to develop the planned major offensive in Donbass coincided with the sad anniversary. But there is war outside the trenches. Underground, in the case of the United States, which just denied Kiev the ability to send fighter jets. And in the G20, where economy and finance ministers met this Saturday in Bangalore, India, they failed to agree on a statement that contained references to the occupation of the former Soviet republic. Both the representatives of Moscow and the Chinese delegation refused to use the term “war”, while the rest of the partners did not want to use a euphemism to hide this conflict.
Beijing’s refusal was used by some Western countries to confirm their impression that the peace plan presented by their government “is not credible”. But whether it is or not, the truth is that it is starting to cause movements. Kazakhstan, a large country in Central Asia, has so far been an ally of Moscow, though it has remained neutral despite the invasion with an ambiguity similar to that of the Asian giant. It has not condemned the offensive, but neither has it recognized the annexation of the Donbas territories declared by Vladimir Putin a few months ago. However, its leaders yesterday openly supported China as a promoter of any peace talks, affirming that the initiative “deserves to be supported”, all on the eve of a visit by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken . to the five former Soviet republics of Central Asia to forge new ties with Washington.
Blinken arrives in Kazakhstan on Tuesday and a day later he visits Uzbekistan to conclude on Friday with a joint meeting with the five Asian rulers. The United States knows that it is a very subtle mission and fraught with difficulties, but that it would reap great returns if it succeeded in aligning itself with the five former republics. The secretary of state wants to convince them that Washington is a “reliable partner” and, just in case, “has something to offer in terms of economic engagement”. However, the White House admits that its interlocutors are not easily convinced. Their countries have very strong security and economic agreements with Russia, which even receives thousands of workers from these regions.
Like Kazakhstan, India, the host country of the G20 meeting, of which it is the current president, also wants to “contribute to Ukraine’s peace efforts,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, “Since the beginning of the conflict, India has stressed the need to resolve dispute through dialogue and diplomacy,” the Indian ruler stressed at the end of a meeting with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in New Delhi. The German leader also expressed his views on the Asian giant’s proposal, which he said that “it has light and shadow” Scholz thus positively appreciated Beijing’s warning to Moscow against the use of nuclear weapons – even the mere threat to resort to them – but criticized the lack of any demand that Russian troops enter Ukraine to leave.
The United States, on the other hand, is clearer. As well as the European Union and NATO. The American National Security adviser, Jake Sullivan, already indicated on Friday that the White House completely rejected the initiative. His message was added yesterday by that of the president himself, Joe Biden, who avoided referring specifically to the plan, but did report that he had warned his counterpart Xi Jinping not to supply arms to Russia, in yet another demonstration of tense existing relations. between the two powers.
Biden also confirmed another refusal this Saturday. The one that will not send fighter jets to Ukraine “for the time being”, closing the open controversy between the allied countries due to Ukrainian leader Volodimir Zelensky’s continued calls to receive F-16s. According to the president, Kyiv “doesn’t need the plane at the moment” as “there is no reason to provide F-16s according to our military”. Zelensky, who received a hug from Biden last Thursday in Kiev in front of the wall of the fallen in the war under mutual displays of complicity, has not yet responded to this refusal, which would drag the rest of the NATO allies in the same direction. The Ukrainian president failed to mention this weekend that in his opinion at least three European governments would be favorable to supplying his air force with fighter jets.
Washington and NATO are extremely reluctant to take this step because of the implications it could have for Moscow and its implications for a possible escalation of the war crisis. In fact, Russian President Vladimir Putin is convinced that the Atlantic Alliance is already participating in the war through continued arms shipments. “They are sending tens of billions of dollars to Ukraine. This is real participation,” he declared in a television interview Saturday night, adding that the West wants to “destroy” Russia and its identity as a people.
In this sense, he justified Moscow’s withdrawal from the START-3 nuclear treaty as a measure to “preserve and guarantee the security and strategic stability of Russia”. According to him, this treaty binds Washington and Moscow, but the war in Ukraine has turned NATO into a third player whose nuclear arsenal is “no longer under scrutiny” in the nuclear non-proliferation agreement. “All NATO countries have announced that their ultimate goal is our strategic defeat. How is it possible that we are not considering its nuclear potential in this context?” asked the Kremlin chief.
Source: La Verdad
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