A Mexican Standoff In Eastern UkraineThe stakes are the future of Moscow’s relationship with the West.
By Douglas Macgregor
February 23, 2022
After years, months, weeks, and days of reiterating its opposition to NATO expansion, especially NATO’s determination to extend membership to Ukraine and Georgia, Moscow acted. Moscow recognized the independence of the two Russian breakaway republics in the Donbas and committed its forces to their defense.
For the moment, it’s a Mexican standoff: a confrontation from which none of the parties—Washington, Kyiv, and Moscow—can extricate itself without suffering a serious loss of face or worse. The stakes here are not merely the self-determination of the breakaway states, Luhansk and Donetsk, and the lives of Ukrainians and Russians, but the future of Moscow’s relationship with the West.
Napoleon Bonaparte said men and nations act from fear or self-interest. Russia’s fear of U.S. forces, including intermediate-range hypersonic missiles on its doorstep, parallels America’s fear of Russian nuclear missiles in Cuba. None of this is surprising. Throughout its history, Tsarist Russia reacted in much the same way, not just from self-interest, but from fear as well.
Since President George H.W. Bush left office, the expansion of NATO has been inextricably intertwined with the desire of Washington’s globalist elites to exploit Ukraine for its potential use as a dagger to be held at Moscow’s throat. It is now up to Washington to end this destructive process.
Washington must approach Moscow before the next phase in the crisis begins: the probable seizure by Russian forces of the territory South of Kiev between the current Russian border and the Dnieper River. Continuing the dialogue of the deaf, in which American representatives ignore the question of NATO membership for Ukraine, is pointless. The president should instead summon the Russian ambassador and propose the following three terms:
First, the United States and its allies will not tolerate the movement of Russian ground forces westward beyond the Dnieper.
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Second, the United States and its allies will agree to conditions of neutrality for Ukraine as currently configured.
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Third, if Moscow accepts these points as the basis for an agreement, the United States and its allies will also work with Moscow to establish a new agreement restricting the numbers of U.S. ground, air, and naval forces permitted to operate in Eastern Europe.
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Source:
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/a-mexican-standoff-in-eastern-ukraine/
