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| Vladimir Putin (Image: CNN) |
It's difficult to offer an alternative perspective to what's going on in Ukraine right now. The widespread anger and anguish over the attacks in the eastern European country by Russian forces are views I share deeply. But I want to have a go, at least, in offering alternative solutions so the nation can reach a state of equilibrium once more. At the moment, world leaders are busy questioning how we got here and in doing so, are scratching heads and slapping wrists. It's easy to argue that there's nothing more they can do, however, there probably is.
I start with where I feel the responsibility lies. On the one hand, the European Union hadn't done enough to boot Russia out of a key financial system despite warnings of growing hostility by Putin's government. Yet, the UK and US are being criticised for not doing enough to deter Russia from its plans to invade. I truly believe the entire West were in utter denial; surely, they thought, Russia won't actually use military force to occupy its innocent neighbour? Sure, troops had been edging closer to the Ukrainian border for weeks, but we're so used to Putin's government being insanely intimidating and stubborn, they felt he wouldn't be so stupid enough to actually attack. But, he has, and as I write this, thousands of innocent lives are being lost.
Sadly, it has been coming. Russia has been on Ukraine's case for years - Putin protested against Ukraine's potential NATO membership, and in 2014 used force to annex Crimea. The powerful European countries and United States, for too long, bowed to pressure and successive Ukrainian governments had been left without sufficient support as a result. Global leaders should justifiably be disappointed in their actions, and unfortunately, I don't see Russia being stopped unless tangible, robust action is taken.
I wasn't around when the Cold War happened, but I feel this is completely different. Russia is a shadow of what USSR was, and Putin isn't good at hiding the fact that he wants to roll back to the 1980s. The best countries can do at this point is impose sanctions, but they've done this for years and stopping banks and oligarchs from accessing invaluable assets had never stopped Russia from misbehaving. Now blood is on Putin's hands.
But let's be honest, there's nothing more that the UK, US or Europe can do alone other than economic sanctions. Russia isn't part of G7 and it's excluded from key global negotiating tables. The last thing the West needs to do is to impose robust military action, otherwise we may as well declare World War III. I'd like to think we're a long way to that point. We've relied so much on Russia with its key assets, the invasion of Ukraine could already shoot up petrol prices just weeks before the 'cost of living crisis' really hits UK homes.
Literally the only route away the West can get Russia to think twice about causing further damage is to sleep with another naughty boy of the world - President Xi of China. Now, China has already backed Russia over its recent NATO protests, and probably won't have anything to do with Ukraine diplomatically. But on one hand, Ukraine's fate is bizarrely in China's hands should Xi dramatically wish to change tone.
World leaders need to think outside the box. No more big 'telling off' words because they mean diddly squat - I echo what I said in 2018 in light of the Salisbury poisoning about this. Putin is more than happy to be cast as the stereotypical Russian villain we see in too many Hollywood films. Yet, the moment a powerful ally of Putin tells him that what he's doing is catastrophically wrong, and imposes their own punishments, then he may listen and stop, but I won't hold by breath. That won't happen in the immediate future, so in the meantime, we need to see things once thought unprecedented.
The United Nations need to step up that much further and four further actions should be forced through; an agreement to a ceasefire is first and foremost, the second is to push Ukraine's membership to NATO - whether Putin likes it or not, better late than never. Third is for all countries to officially recognise Russia as a 'rogue state'. I'm stunned the White House hasn't begun the process of doing that already. And finally, if Putin's attacks are 'illegal', someone find the international law that's broken and send him to The Hague. It's time he and his reckless regime to be held to account, and done properly. There are obstacles to achieving any of these. However, start the process now and Ukraine will be safer once more, which is what its citizens and the world needs.
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