This happened on a day that appeared to be predicting the end of the security architecture, consensus, and arrangements that kept Europe and the rest of the world stable and secure for over three quarters of a century.
Early Thursday morning, missiles and a sense de tragedy fell on the vast European plain. The eve-of war remarks of Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukrainian President, and Vladimir Putin, Russian President, showed that the poles were starkly opposed in this conflict.
Putin was wearing the same clothes and sitting in the same position as his history-twisting speech on Monday night. This raises the possibility that the remarks were recorded two days prior to his announcement that Russia would launch a special military operation to defend the two Ukrainian breakaway regions that his government recently declared sovereign.
He didn’t seem to realize that he was declaring an attack on a neighbouring country and unilaterally abandoning the international agreement that no national borders should be altered by force. He insisted that Ukraine (the country he calls Little Russia) was an existential threat and that he was preparing to attack his country, which is three times its size, and much better armed.
In a naked message to all of the world, he warned any foreign country that tried to interfere with the “consequences” he had never seen. This was the first time since Nikita Khrushchev that a Russian leader has so boldly urged Moscow to use its nuclear weapon.
Putin made a series of accusations against America, calling it “an empire full of lies” and including U.S. allies or “satellites”, as he called them, as part of this empire.
He condemned past U.S. military intervention in Syria, Iraq and Libya, as well as the Balkans. He maintained that Russia’s sovereignty was the ultimate goal of the U.S.
He also accused the Ukrainians as a group of far-right nationalists and neo-Nazis, who he claimed are aspiring to acquire nuclear weapons. (In reality, Ukraine has voluntarily removed the Soviet nuclear arsenal it had in the 1990s along with Belarus and Kazakhstan.
He said that the operation would not be a war against aggression but a defensive one to protect the people of Donbas. They left us with no other choice.”
Zelenskyy was dressed in a tailored suit and stood in front of a map showing Ukraine’s borders late Thursday. He wasn’t aggressive. In a tailored suit, Zelenskyy was standing in front of a map of Ukraine late Thursday. He was politely asking Putin to stop.
It was unlikely that many Russians would have seen Zelenskyy’s message. In Putin’s Russia, state broadcast media were long ago captured. Only internet-connected people or those who listened to foreign broadcasters online would have heard him.
They aren’t stupid. They are not stupid.
However, Zelenskyy’s address is moving. He stated that he tried to contact Putin on Wednesday. “The result was silence.”
Instead, he changed from Ukrainian to Russian in order to directly address Russians. He claimed that it was absurd for Ukrainians to harbor hatred for their compatriots living in breakaway areas, where he grew-up and where his best friend lived. He asked how he could be accused of being Nazi.
He explained to Russians that the border of their two-and-a-half-kilometer (1200-mile) with Ukraine was surrounded by nearly 200,000 Russian troops. He spoke somberly and with the directness and ease of a former TV actor, stating that the people of Ukraine and government of Ukraine wanted peace.
He stated that Ukraine was ready for anything.
“But, if we are under attack, if there is an attempt to take our country, freedom and lives, or those of our children, then we will defend ourselves. You will see our faces if you attack us. He said, “Not our backs but our faces.”
Within hours, rockets were falling on military installations across Ukraine.
Ironically, Russia is the current chair of the U.N. Security Council. This forum was established after World War II in order to address such threats to conflict. Russia is one of five permanent members with veto power over all actions.
As Putin made his intentions known, the emergency Security Council meeting was still in progress. However, the conflict soon broke out between the envoys from Russia and Ukraine. Vassily Nebenzia, the Russian Ambassador, insisted that this was not a conflict but a “special military operations.”
Sergiy Kyslytsya (ambassador of Ukraine), said outside that “Lunatic semantics” was his response.
On the first day of the attack on Ukraine, however, everyone seemed to realize that the world cannot return to the balance and assured detente that had kept Europe free from major wars between nations since 1945. This long peace has allowed millions to prosper and many generations to live in relative safety.
As the first reports of casualties started to come in, Jens Stoltenberg (secretary general of NATO) declared, “Peace has been broken on our continent.”
The West will immediately respond by imposing severe sanctions on Putin, his associates, and the Russian government. The U.S. has not yet ruled out a military response, according to President Joe Biden. However, such sanctions will come at a cost to Americans, Europeans, and everyone else around the world.
As many Ukrainians flee to safety, others wait for their government to distribute arms to them. NATO is building up its forces in countries now facing direct Russian threats, from Estonia in the north to Romania to the south. This is as unpredictable as any war.
The governments are making adjustments and the internal European quarrels that are currently being fought are being put aside in order to adapt to a new reality.
Anna-Lena Lauren, columnist for the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter, predicts that the attack could bring an end to Putin’s almost absolute rule.
“The Russian dictator will not be able to survive his disastrously miscalculated decision over the long-term. She said that history will not be kind.”
“A war without results, without the support of the people, and that leads to bloodshed against a peaceful neighbour to which a large portion of the Russians have emotional connections. This is madness.
