AS pitched battles are being fought in Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, the two warring sides have expressed their willingness to talk and it is responsibility of the international community, especially the United Nations, to help translate this desire into reality as continuation of the conflict poses a serious threat to regional and global peace as well as economic interests of all countries particularly the smaller ones.
The offer of dialogue by Moscow seems to be conditional as President Putin told his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping that his country was ready to send a delegation to Minsk for negotiations with representatives of Ukraine but earlier Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Friday that Russia will return to negotiations with Ukraine as soon as the Ukrainian armed forces surrender and lay down their weapons.
As against this, Ukrainian Presidential Advisor Mykhailo Podolyak says his country wants peace and is ready for talks with Russia, including on neutral status regarding the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO).
The Chinese President has once again demonstrated his commitment for peace and security of the globe by emphasizing the negotiated settlement of the conflict and it was because of his counselling that a positive response emerged from Moscow.
The latest development is a silver lining on the horizon in the backdrop of apprehensions being expressed by strategists that any mishandling of the conflict could lead to nuclear catastrophe as, earlier, President Putin, in his speech, minced no words in declaring that he has the weapons available if anyone dares to use military means to try to stop Russia’s attack on Ukraine.
In response, the French Foreign Minister said that the Russian President, when making threats about using nuclear weapons, needs to understand that NATO, too, is a nuclear alliance.
Of course, these are mere statements and all sides fully understand the consequences of the use of nuclear weapons.
The war has, however, fully exposed the United States and the West as none of them could come to the rescue of Ukraine once active hostilities began despite repeated calls by the Ukrainian President for effective military action.
Just after two days of the invasion, it dawned upon the leadership and people of Ukraine that foreign guarantees for protection of sovereignty and solidarity of a country are just eye-wash and defence has to come from within.
Apart from recent expressions of support by the United States and other members of NATO, Ukraine was also provided firm guarantees against any foreign aggression at the time of its denuclearization soon after the break-up of the Soviet Union when an understanding was reached that only the Russian Federation would inherit the status of nuclear power.
This is also a lesson for Pakistan, which is often given similar assurances during talks on the nuclear programme of the country, which is an eye-sore to some countries.
No doubt, any military involvement by the United States and NATO could push the globe towards a third world war but Ukraine has not received even the required military assistance to defend itself.
It was because of the utter frustration over lacklustre attitude of the West that has gripped Ukraine that its President has lost no time in expressing willingness to talk including on the central issue of neutrality.
It was a major demand of the Russian Federation that Ukraine must remain neutral and not become a member of NATO as Moscow can ill-afford deployment of NATO missiles in its immediate neighbourhood.
There were also apprehensions that Russia wanted to occupy Ukraine but its Foreign Minister insisted that “nobody intends to occupy Ukraine”.
Russia demands that Ukraine drop its ambition to join NATO and that the Western military alliance scale back its presence in Eastern Europe.It seems Russia only wanted a regime change in Ukraine.
He affirmed that Russia’s goal is to free Ukraine of “external management” carried out by the US and “Nazis,” and that the attack was aimed at the “denazification” of Ukraine.
All this shows there is clear room for an early end to hostilities to avoid bloodshed and large-scale displacements that have already crossed one hundred thousand.
It is also time for NATO to give up the policy of expanding its area of influence and that too at the cost of sovereignty and territorial integrity of small countries.
