''Public discussion on Ukraine is all about confrontation. But do we
know where we are going? In my life, I have seen four wars begun with
great enthusiasm and public support, all of which we did not know how to
end and from three of which we withdrew unilaterally. The test of
policy is how it ends, not how it begins.
Far too often the Ukrainian issue is posed as a showdown: whether
Ukraine joins the East or the West. But if Ukraine is to survive and
thrive, it must not be either side’s outpost against the other — it
should function as a bridge between them.
Russia must accept that
to try to force Ukraine into a satellite status, and thereby move
Russia’s borders again, would doom Moscow to repeat its history of
self-fulfilling cycles of reciprocal pressures with Europe and the
United States.
The West must understand that, to Russia, Ukraine
can never be just a foreign country. Russian history began in what was
called Kievan-Rus. The Russian religion spread from there. Ukraine has
been part of Russia for centuries, and their histories were intertwined
before then. Some of the most important battles for Russian freedom,
starting with the Battle of Poltava in 1709
, were fought on Ukrainian soil. The Black Sea Fleet — Russia’s
means of projecting power in the Mediterranean — is based by long-term
lease in Sevastopol, in Crimea. Even such famed dissidents as Aleksandr
Solzhenitsyn and Joseph Brodsky insisted that Ukraine was an integral
part of Russian history and, indeed, of Russia.''
No comments:
Post a Comment