By Lateef Adegbite
Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian President appears to have sent a message to Vladimir Putin the Russian Leader, that he is ready for compromise the one month-old war. ‘’I am ready for compromise to end the war’’, he had said.
The Ukrainianian President who is desirous to see the war come to an end because of ‘‘theunprecedented destruction of the major cities in the southern region of the country’’ had said on Monday, March 21, 2022, that ‘’the status of the contested territories in the country’s eastern region would be put for referendum’’.
An embattled Zelensky who have had all the humanitarian and military aid of the North American country of the United States, US, European Union, EU, United Kingdom, UK, Canada and other leading members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organistation, NATO, may have shocked the international Community late on Monday, March 21,2022, when he said that‘’Kyiv was will willing ‘’to shelve its NATO membership ambition in exchange for withdrawal of Russian Forces from Ukraine’’.
He had said that he had made up his mind to do so because ‘’the west doesn’t know what to do with the country with regard to NATO, which wants security guarantees’’, noting that he has to listen ‘’to Moscow which doesn’t want further NATO expansion into Eastern Europe.
Recall that Romannia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Lactivia, Slovenia, Slovakia and Lithunia had joined the security alliance in 2002 and former President George Walker Bush had boasted in 2008, that Ukraine, the neighbouring country to Russia is their next target.
The Leadership of the security alliance may have started making plans to bring the Ukraine into the security alliance until 2014, when Russia took over control of the Crimean pnnisula and recognised the eastern breakaway regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, days before launching the Special military operations in the country on Thursday, February 24, 2022.
Although Zelensky had said that the country would not join NATO, in order to win the heart of Putin, the Russian President, but had said that he would not ‘’ handover’’ the eastern city of Kherson or the heavily bombarded and besieged port city of Mariupol to Russia, insisting that ‘’Ukraine would not fulfill Russia ultimatums’’. ‘’We should be destroyed first before Russia could take over the eastern region cities’’, he had said.
The Ukrainian President may have been encouraged to take such a tough stand because 80% of the country’s population are solidly behind hind him that they would not want ‘’to relinquish Donetsk and Luhansk regions, meaning that that he is not ready to let go Kherson and Mariupol to Russia.
He had told those that cares to listen that ‘’the war is going to end on a ‘’Negotiating table’’, stressing that ‘’it is possible there may not be a solution to the war because of the several interests’’. In an emotional outburst in a recent interview he had urged Putin not think that he is’’ destroying Ukraine but destroying himself’’. Take for instance in Mariupol, city officials said ‘’there is no food, medicine, power or running water’’. They were emphatic: there is nothing left in the city.
Joe Biden, US President fears that Putin might be considering ‘’using chemical and biological weapons as part of his ground plans to completely destroy Ukraine but Dmitry Peskov, Kremlin spokesperson had said an interview with CNN, that Russia would not use the Nuclear bomb option in the Ukraine war except if ‘’there is existential threat for the country’’. He noted that ‘’it will be used in accordance with Russia Concept’’.
Putin, the Russia President may have put the Nuclear missile forces, northern and Pacific fleets on enhanced combat duty, forcing Antonio Guterres, UN, Secretary General, who had initially said that the prospect of unthinkable, as he is now back within the realm of possibility’’.
Given the increasing ‘’brutal tactics’’ of the Russian Forces in shelling and bombardment of Kherson and Mariupol cities, there are indications that more than 3.5 million people have left Ukraine since the war started, but the UN, in its recent report had said that 6.5 million have been replaced in the country internally. It is not surprisisng why Biden, the US President may have concluded plans ‘’to permanently maintain an increased number of troops in the NATO countries near the war-torn Ukraine as he heads to Europe for the security alliance meeting late this month.
The situation in Ukraine has become so worrisome that Pope Francis, has issued his toughest ‘’condemnation of the Russian invasion’’ describing it as an ‘’unacceptable armed aggression that must be stopped’’. The Catholic Pontiff had said that Russian forces have ‘’no valid strategic reason for the barbaric killing of Children and unarmed civilians in Ukraine’’.
An aggrieved Pope Francis had said that Ukrainian cities have been ‘’reduced to cemeteries’’. The Pope is more concerned about what is happening in the 400,000 people port city of Mariupol which he had described as a ‘’martyred city’’.
The US Embassy in Kyiv, had cited the war- torn Ukraine’s Foreign ministry as saying that 2, 389 Ukrainian children have been ‘’illegally removed’’ from the Russian controlled Luhansk and Donetsk oblast and taken to Russia. ‘’This is not assistance but Kidnapping of Ukrainian children’’, the Embassy had said.
Worried by the prevailing situation in the Southern city of MMariupol, Iryna Verreschuk, the Ukrainian Deputy Prime minister, has made a new appeal to Russia on Tuesday, March 22, 2022, ‘’to allow humanitarian supplies into the besieged Kherson city and to let civilians leave’’. There are reports making the rounds in EU and NTO member countries that Russian forces were ‘’preventing humanitarian supplies from reaching residents of the Southern city of Kherson’’.
Boris Johnson, the British Prime minister who had compared ‘’the Ukrainian resistance to Russia forces with the Brexit to choose freedom every time’’ may have come under fire from the members of Parliament, including the Conservative party Parliamentarians.
Rishi Sunak, the Ukrainian minister of Finance may have known that Johnson, the British Prime minister had played into the hands of the Liberal Democrats in the Parliament that he had come out to defend him stressing that he did not consider ‘’the two situations comparable’’. Hear him: Clearly they are not directly analogous and I don’t think the Prime minister was saying they were directly analogous either.
In a related development, Kyiv had rejected a Russian offer to evacuate its troops from the besieged city of Kherson. Zelenskky had told the Italian Parliament on Tuesday, March 22, 2022, that his country which was on ‘’the brink of collapse was ‘’surviving its war with Russia’’ that he wanted ‘’to break through to the rest of Europe for support’’. He had made the Italian Parliamentarians to know that ‘’Ukraine is the gates of Europe where NATO had wanted to break in,insisting that ‘’barbarism’’, referring to Russia, must not be allowed ‘’to pass’’.
