Eastern Europe in High Stress
Eastern Europe in High Stress
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, left, and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg are seen at a news conference at the European Union headquarters in Brussels on Thursday. (John Thys/AFP/Getty Images) |
"The message today to Russia is that it is for Ukraine as a sovereign nation to decide its own path.""We call on Russia to return to diplomacy. To de-escalate. And to respect Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity.""Any further aggression against Ukraine will have severe consequences. And would carry a high price."
Jens Stoltenberg, NATO Secretary-General"We will emphasize here once again, that the inviolability of borders is one of the very important foundations of peace in Europe, and that we will do everything together to ensure that this inviolability actually remains."German Chancellor Olaf Scholz"I'm worried because the military concentration, especially on the Ukrainian border with Russia [is] very strong.""We are prepared to avoid the kind of surprises we met during the occupation of Crimea."Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa, EU revolving presidency"Probably we face the most dangerous situation in the last 30 years. I think we have to do everything that is in our hands to prevent the worst scenario, which we [cannot] exclude.""This scenario is possible military intervention into the territory of Ukraine."Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda"There will be no talks on European security without European allies and partners.""[Washington will hold discussions with its allies but] we will not compromise the key principles on which European security is built, including that all countries have the right to decide their own future and foreign policy, free from outside interference."Jen Psaki, White House spokesperson
Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks at a conference in Moscow on Friday. (Sergei Guneyev/SPUTNIK/AFP/Getty Images) |
Over
100,000 Russian troops have been massed on the Russian border with
Ukraine, leaving leaders of Europe to warn of the most dangerously tense
episode occurring in real time, in the past 30 years since the
dissolution of the Soviet Union when its satellites went their separate
ways, assuming full sovereignty for themselves after years of orbiting
helplessly around the powerfully-enforced magnetic star of the USSR.
With
the last European Council summit of the year in Belgium, EU heads of
state and government gave ample warning to the Kremlin that it would
face "massive consequences and severe cost" should there be a repeat of
the annexation of Crimea in a violent 2014 takeover. But Vladimir Putin
remains resolute; should Europe wish to achieve a relaxation of
tensions, NATO must withdraw its 2008 assurance to Ukraine that it would
be welcomed along with Georgia into its bloc. No agreement, no
de-escalation.
Moscow's
published list of demands for de-escalation and recall of Russian
troops and war machinery has failed to impress NATO and the EU.
Russia's insistence of a legally binding guarantee that NATO surrender
all military activity in eastern Europe and Ukraine is part of its list
of security guarantees to be negotiated with the West if any progress is
to be made in de-engaging from its current level of intimidation and
threat.
The
detailed demands, Moscow stressed, are essential, without which
tensions will not be diminished in Europe, and the crisis over Ukraine
defused. However, the world could be assured, Moscow reiterated, that it
has no intention whatever of planning an invasion of Ukraine. Demands
include an effective Russian veto on future NATO membership for Ukraine.
Other elements relate to the removal of U.S. nuclear weapons from
Europe alongside the withdrawal of multi national NATO battalions from
Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
None of those demands were met with ingratiating deference. Russia does not, after all, control with the
EU or NATO and its allies, led by the United States, envision for Europe; total abandonment of the Baltic states and the rest of eastern Europe to the kind remonstrances of the Kremlin to convince former satellites that their futures lie with a resumption of their former devotion to a mighty Russia's formation of a strong Europe.
EU or NATO and its allies, led by the United States, envision for Europe; total abandonment of the Baltic states and the rest of eastern Europe to the kind remonstrances of the Kremlin to convince former satellites that their futures lie with a resumption of their former devotion to a mighty Russia's formation of a strong Europe.
According
to Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, Russia and the West
must begin with a clean slate to rebuild relations gone sour. Russia
being fully prepared to begin talks as soon as possible. As far as the
Kremlin is concerned, its position is one of response to threats to its
security from Ukraine's increasingly warm relations with NATO and its
aspirations to join the alliance.
The
best possible scenario the Kremlin envisages if that NATO return to
the situation that existed before May 1997; predating the accession to
NATO of any of the former communist states in east Europe; that NATO
relinquish any military activities in Ukraine, eastern Europe, the
Caucasus and Central Asia. Wait for it.
Labels: De-Escalation, Demands, EU, Moscow, NATO, Stress, Threats. Ukraine, US, Warning
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