Taking a united stand against Russian aggression in Ukraine - Steve Cardownie
I had a good talk yesterday with my long-time Ukranian friend, Yuriy Onishchenko, about the recent developments regarding the Russian invasion of his country and possible solutions to end the war.
Yuriy is a former Soviet Army tank commander and has maintained contact with senior figures in the Ukranian military.
He was about to make his way into Kyiv city centre from his home when I caught up with him via WhatsApp.
I was particularly interested about his take on the meetings that have taken place over the last few days between the leaders of the USA, Russia, Ukraine and other European countries, including the UK.
We discussed the proposal that Ukraine would be offered a guarantee of security, backed up by the USA and European countries to deter Putin from any further aggression and annexation of Ukranian territory. But to say that he was sceptical that this could work would be an understatement.
He said that such a guarantee must be set in stone if it is to have the desired effect, as he believes that Putin will not simply throw in the towel and abandon his efforts to subjugate Ukraine.
Yuriy’s view is that Putin has amassed a fortune and now wants to go down in history as the man who restored the Russian Empire and he will stop at nothing to achieve his goal.
“He will more likely regroup, modernise his armed forces, develop new, sophisticated weapons and then resume hostilities.”
Yuriy went on to say “So, Putin must be left in no doubt whatsoever that any future attacks on Ukraine will be met by a show of force from the western countries that have signed up to this security agreement. Only then, Putin may think twice before threatening Ukraine again.”
Putin’s demand that the Ukranian territory of Donbas be absorbed within Russia has been met with resistance, with a recent opinion poll conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology concluding that 75 per cent of those polled objected to formally ceding any land to Russia.
And some commentators have gone so far as to say that if President Zelenskyy was to recommend such a proposal, his presidency would be over.
Yuriy is waiting to see how President Zelenskyy will respond and the outcome of further meetings that have been planned, particularly between Trump, Zelenskyy and Putin, with the warning that “Putin cannot be trusted.”
After more than three years of war, which is still raging, the Ukranian people are hopeful that these first signs of moves towards peace will proceed apace.
They are also mindful that tens of thousands of Ukrainians have died defending their country and that every family has been affected one way or another, so they will not simply accept Putin’s demands.
So far, Donald Trump has afforded Putin far more respect than he deserves, which is none, but he is likely to continue to “play to the gallery” thankful that the Epstein Files have been put on the back burner - for now!