The war in Ukraine and our obligation to seek peace
The war in Ukraine and our obligation to seek peace
If Russia stops fighting, it’s the end of the war. If Ukraine stops fighting, it’s the end of Ukraine.
What is this blog? It has no About page or any info to judge its credibility.
The author: Michael von der Schulenburg, former UN Assistant Secretary-General, escaped East Germany in 1969, studied in Berlin, London and Paris and worked for over 34 years for the United Nations, and shortly the OSCE, in many countries in war or internal armed conflicts often involving fragile governments and armed non-state actors. These included long-term assignments in Haiti, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq and Sierra Leone and shorter assignments in Syria, the Balkan, Somalia, the Balkan, the Sahel, and Central Asia. In 2017, he published the book ‘On Building Peace – rescuing the Nation-State and saving the United Nations’, AUP.
Former UN Assistant Secretary-General is not credible.
Putin does not want to talk or negotiate. His offer for Ukraine is surrender. Ukraine would need to give up the 4 oblasts that Russia considers part of Russia, including their 2nd and 3rd largest cities.
Judging by how civilians fared in cities like mariopol and bucha, millions will die then anyway.
Talking with Russia will not resolve anything. Letting up on Russia will only allow them to come back stronger.
His offer for Ukraine is surrender. Ukraine would need to give up the 4 oblasts that Russia considers part of Russia, including their 2nd and 3rd largest cities.
Both 2nd and 3rd largest cities of Ukraine are outside of borders of 5 contested regions.
5 contested regions? Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporhizhia, Kherson, Crimea, Odessa.
And no #2 Kharkiv and #3 Odessa are both on Putin's "wishlist".
The end goal is to link up the coast to Transnistria and make what is left of Ukraine landlocked.
A constantly repeated argument in the West is that Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine is illegal under international law and that Ukraine thus has not only the right to defend itself, but also the right to ask other states for help in defending itself. This is indisputable, as this conclusion is based on the principles of the UN Charter. But does the UN Charter thereby also give the West the right to continue this war at will, to seek a military victory over Russia and to refuse all peace efforts on these grounds? Certainly not!
The West is not “continuing the war at will.” That phrase has no meaning in this context. The West is supplying Ukraine with the means to continue to resist the illegal Russian invasion.
The West would in fact have the right under Just War theory to enter into combat operations in Ukraine against Russian forces, and to operate combat operations against Russia up to and including invasion. Because Russia is the aggressor, Just War theory gives other nations the right to participate in the resistance of aggression.
The west is helping a country defend itself.
If we swapped out "Ukraine" for "Poland" and the year was 1939, would you still feel good about the position you're apparently defending?