The US, EU and NATO hold moral responsibility for the present crisis in Ukraine

Feb 26, 2022 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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Kaieteur News – In 1990, there was an agreement between the USSR and the United States that NATO would not expand eastwards of Germany. This understanding which was necessary for the security of the then USSR, including Russia, was publicly acknowledged and is now confirmed in declassified documents.
The USA, NATO and the European Union did not stick to their end of the bargain. The Cold War never ended, in so far as these three parties were concerned. The “not one inch eastward” policy was all rhetoric. The troika continued to threaten Russian security through the eastward expansion of both NATO and the European Union. America also got involved in supplying military hardware to countries co-opted as part of this expansion. And it openly meddled in the internal affairs of Ukraine.
All of these were part of a deliberate policy of encirclement of Russia following the breakup of the USSR. The European Union in 1989 consisted of only a handful of states. Today it is comprised of some 27 states. From 1989 onwards its membership began to expand so as to absorb Eastern European states. Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia, all of which in some shape or form had been part of the old Communist bloc, either joined NATO or the EU or both. Russia was slowly being encircled by states aligned to the western axis.
NATO has also been courting Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan and Moldova. NATO’s objective of encircling Russia has never been hidden and is continuing. NATO claims that it is defensive but the expansion of its membership to encircle Russia is far from defensive.
Flouting provocation in the face of Russia, NATO has established a military base in Poland. In 2014, the Ukrainian parliament approved that country’s involvement in military exercises which would bring American troops onto Russia’s borders.
America imposed a 60 year old embargo against Cuba and invaded Grenada in 1983, because, as it claims, these countries threatened its national security. So why then does it expect Russia to sit idly by and be encircled by hostile forces?
As part of the plot of encirclement, America was involved in the coup against President Viktor Yanukovych of Ukraine in 2014. This plot was part of the wider plan to woo Ukraine into the orbit of both the EU and NATO, and as such represented a direct threat to Russia’s national security.
Russia has always insisted that it has a right to its own security. The American’s proclaim this very principle in relation to Israel but seeks to deny Russia the same right.
International law cannot be conveniently applied. It must be even-handed. America loves to quote international law when its interests are affected. But forgets that international law is also on the side of the right of the Palestinians to self-determination, against the Cuban embargo and certainly, outlaws meddling in the internal affairs of states, as America did in 2014 in toppling the then Ukrainian government.
The right to security and the right to self-defence are also principles of international law and in the face of NATO’s and the EU’s expansion towards the borders of Russia, that country has a right to its security and to take action to ensure this security.
China and Russia recently called attention to another important principle of international law. The Russian President was in China for the opening of the Winter Games and the two states issued a statement. In that joint declaration, the two sides said, “No State can or should ensure its own security separately from the security of the rest of the world and at the expense of the security of other States.”
The security of Ukraine cannot be had at the expense of the security of Russia. This is why the situation in Ukraine is a complex one and not simply a case of Russia being the aggressor. Russia is being encircled on all sides as part of a deliberate policy of the Americans, the EU and NATO. Russia has a right to self-defence.
Ukraine has paid the price for being a pawn of the West. Its President is now pleading for help from the very forces which led him astray. But the Americans are not running to his assistance. It has already said that it will not deploy its forces in that conflict. Neither will NATO.
Ukraine stands alone. That is the price it has paid for being a consenting party to NATO and EU enlargement and the encirclement of Russia.
(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

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