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By Ron Calhoun
The Russian invasion of Ukraine is a “Me, Me!” selfish cry for attention.
President Vladimir Putin’s primary excuse for the exercise is to have a say in Ukraine’s future and its political direction. The second reason for the invasion is to keep NATO off its borders. It’s that simple! (See map. Blue is NATO territory) More about NATO soon.
Putin, on many occasions, has called Ukraine a brotherly nation. “We are one people,” Putin once said publicly. So if you’re my brother, why are you pounding on me, bro? Brothers fight as children and sometimes a parent has to intervene. As mature adults, we sit down and come to an agreement, even if it means we need to stay in our own lane. Ultimately, Putin is sending mixed signals.
When we are talking about countries and presidents, the tool to use is diplomacy. Diplomacy should be used through an organization called the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
NATO is an alliance of countries from Europe and North America. It provides a unique link between these two continents, enabling them to consult and cooperate in the fields of defense and security, and conduct multi-national crisis-management operations together. The United States is a partner in NATO. However the diplomacy ship has sailed as of a few days ago when Russia invaded Ukraine. Why invade now?
Putin is not satisfied with the status quo, and apparently, things are getting worse economically, and more importantly militarily in Russia. Ukraine, over the last 8 years, has become more independent and is gathering military support from NATO (Pro-Western). NATO is not an offensive force and is used as a deterrent. The territories that turned to NATO were not conquered, so his narrative of NATO “aggressively expanding towards our territory” is ridiculous.
Just to give an example, NATO built a system designed to shoot down missiles using non-explosive devices. Its systems literally can’t be used to fire at the ground or launch explosive rounds. Putin is saying it is a direct threat to Russia. When someone says that, they mean that someone can do damage to targets on the ground in their territory. It’s nonsense. Also, Russia was invited to be part of the development of those missile systems and refused.
If Ukraine joined NATO, it could pose a serious threat to Russia’s national security, and Putin’s concern is understandable. However, Putin does not respect Ukraine’s sovereignty but loves the resource this young democracy has and is missing from Russia.
The plot thickens!