Ukraine's Lonely Plight

"[The only way that Ukraine can end the crisis would be to surrender ambitions to join NATO, declaring neutrality], demilitarize, [and give up any territorial claim to Crimea]."

"We expect, and I want to underline this, that all the difficult questions will be solved during negotiations [between Kyiv and the separatist leadership]."

Russian President Vladimir Putin 

 

"We are committed to the peaceful and diplomatic path. We will follow it and only it."

"But we are on our own and, we are not afraid of anything and anybody."

"We owe nothing to no one, and we will give nothing to no one."

Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked Western nations for sanctions against Russia and warned that the future of European security is being decided 'now, here, in Ukraine.

"If Russia goes further with its invasion we stand prepared to go further with sanctions. Russia will pay an even steeper price if it continues its aggression."

Who in the Lord's name does Putin think gives him the right to declare new so-called countries on territory that belongs to his neighbours? This is a flagrant violation of international law. [He is] carving out a chunk of Ukraine."

"I have authorized additional movements of U.S. forces and equipment, already stationed in Europe, to strengthen our Baltic allies, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania."

"There is still time to avert the worst case scenario that will bring untold suffering to millions of people."

U.S. President Joe Biden

Ukrainian service members take part in tactical drills at a training ground in an unknown location in Ukraine, in this handout picture released Feb. 22, 2022. (Press service of the Ukrainian Armed Forces General Staff/Handout via Reuters)

 

How much 'further with its invasion' must Moscow go to enable Washington to identify geographical theft that goes somewhat beyond the 'minor incident' that Mr. Biden mused about several weeks ago, leaving the impression that NATO and the U.S. could somehow overlook something as 'minor' as, say a repeat of the 2014 invasion and annexation of Crimea? The U.S. is a large country geographically, though not as large as Russia.

What would be the NATO and U.S. response if Russia looked with avarice at a territory it once owned and sold to the United States for a pittance? What would happen in response, as an example of a 'minor incident', if Russia decided to invade Alaska reclaiming it as a territorial imperative, that it should never have been released from Russian ownership. It is, after all, much closer geographically to Russia than it is to the United States....

Alaskans would be threatened by the 'occupation' and the governance of a country for whom violence is of little account in claiming what it insists is its by historical account, a heritage property beyond dispute... The social, civil upheaval with the resulting dispersal of civilian populations would be enormous and tragic; reflecting what Ukrainian citizens living in the occupied and now virtually annexed Donbas region of Donetsk and Luhansk face.

 

Ukrainians attend a rally Wednesday to protest after Moscow's decision to formally recognize two Russian-backed regions of Eastern Ukraine as independent. (Carlos Barria/Reuters)

Anger and determination to oppose Russia, on the part of those territories' civilian populations will have them bearing arms and fighting for their right to remain under Ukraine governance for they are Ukrainian and it is their country and their children's futures they fight for. Using the pretext of 'backing' the territorial claims of ethnic Russian separatists is a transparent ploy to invite Ukraine to order its military to greater action in defending Ukraine territory.

Giving Vladimir Putin the final reason he agitates toward to ignite a wider conflict. Mr. Biden's words of assurance to Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania, along with Poland and others, will ring empty when viewed through the lens of European and NATO inaction in supporting Ukraine. It is the entire Donbas region that will find its way into the Russian Federation, and a little more gradually, more of Ukraine, as it defends itself against a vastly superior military machine.

Of course, Mr. Putin himself expanded the message of 'diplomatic action' when he stated it to be "impossible to predict" just how far he planned to probe  his military into Ukraine; his troops would enter and it would "depend on the specific situation on the ground". As though to say that if Ukraine is unreasonable and decides to defend itself irrespective of the losses -- of human life and territory -- then poor, abused Russia will have little choice but to bulldoze through all of Ukraine....

Police officers and members of the Ukrainian National Guard are seen outside the Russian Embassy in Kyiv on Wednesday. (Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters)