We must remind Russia of our opposition to the invasion of Ukraine

Mar 01, 2022 Letters

Dear Editor,

Article 13 welcomes and supports the condemnation by the President Ali government and the PNC-R, the main opposition party, of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
We note that President Putin of Russia announced a “special military operation” to “demilitarise” Ukraine at the very moment that the United Nations 15-Member States Security Council was meeting in a last-minute attempt to avoid a full-scale conflict. The meeting was called by Ukraine and a draft resolution calling on Russia, among other things, to cease all military action against, and the withdrawal of all its forces from Ukraine was tabled by Albania and the United States.
Article 13 recognises the cardinal principle, going back to the end of World War 2, that all countries have a right to the security of their borders, the integrity of their territory, and to self-determination. We in this Region are all too well aware of military and other forms of intervention and consider that any decision on intervention must be in exceptional case determined not by individual countries, but by the United Nations under its Charter. In our view, Russia’s action is in violation of both the Charter as well as international law.
Putin’s concerns about the security of Russia following the announcement by the Ukraine President of his willingness to have Ukraine join the North Atlantic Treaty Alliance, which he feared could put American soldiers on the borders of Russia have been undermined by his shifting objectives of his military action, such as regime change, defending breakaway regions of Ukraine, and false claims of genocide in those regions which only Russia recognises as real countries. On the other hand, those who supported the Ukrainian President‘s willingness to join NATO now offer the invasion as proof of the necessity for Ukraine to have sought protection against its giant neighbour whose President seems to entertain dreams of a return to the days of the USSR and the Cold War. Putin’s threats have now gone from bad to worse, with his latest being to put his country’s nuclear forces on higher alert, an apparent response to Russia being excluded from the international financial system SWIFT.
China and India, countries which themselves have territorial claims or disputes with neighbouring countries, along with the United Arab Emirates, did not support the resolution. It is worth noting that these are all countries with which Guyana has close ties. Of more significance to Guyana however is not that Venezuela has followed Russia in blaming the United States and NATO as the cause of the war but that it has pledged support for Russia in the conflict with Ukraine. It may not be too far-fetched to think that Venezuela’s support for its reckless and unlawful action may have been made with other considerations in mind.
Article 13 calls on the Government, the Opposition and indeed Civil Society, to keep reminding Russia of our country’s strong opposition to Russia’s action and to express our country’s disappointment to China, India and the United Arab Emirates that their ambivalence is not helpful to Guyana.

Regards,
Article 13

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