There was a bit of drama this past week at the United Nations. Much of it revolved around the first appearance at that world body in a decade by Russian President Vladimir Putin. The main topics of interest were Syria and Ukraine, and it was quite apparent that Mr. Putin was using the Syrian crisis to divert attention from the war in Ukraine. As well, in pushing his own version of an anti-terrorist coalition, he was trying to re-establish Russia as a player on the world scene after it was isolated because of its annexation of Crimea and invasion of eastern Ukraine.
President Petro Poroshenko, meanwhile, spoke forcefully of the results of Russia’s aggression in Ukraine, where 44,000 square kilometers are occupied by Russia and its proxies. During the 20 months since the war began, he related, “more than 8,000 Ukrainians, of whom about 6,000 are civilians, died at the hands of the Russian-backed terrorists and occupiers in Donbas. More than 1.5 million residents of [the] Donbas were forced to flee their homes and became internally displaced persons moving to other safer regions in Ukraine.”
President Barack Obama had some strong words regarding the situation in Ukraine. “…we cannot stand by when the sovereignty and territorial integrity of a nation is flagrantly violated. If that happens without consequence in Ukraine, it could happen to any nation gathered here today,” he stated.
Mr. Putin, however, continued his misrepresentations and outright lies. NATO, he said, “offered the poor Soviet countries a false choice: either to be with the West or with the East. Sooner or later, this logic of confrontation was bound to spark off a grave geopolitical crisis.” What happened in Ukraine, he said, was that “the discontent of [the] population with the current authorities was used and the military coup was orchestrated from outside – that triggered a civil war as a result.”
That set the stage for talks between Presidents Obama and Putin. Ukraine’s president told the Associated Press on September 27 that he hoped the planned talks might produce “a firmer incentive” for Moscow to comply with the Minsk agreements. “This applies to the impossibility of holding sham elections in the occupied territory, thorough implementation of all terms of the deal, access for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to all control checkpoints, withdrawal of all Russian soldiers from the occupied territories and closing the border,” Mr. Poroshenko said.
Now, we have no way of knowing what was said during the 90-minute meeting on September 28 between the U.S. and Russian presidents (Don’t we all wish we did?), but the messages sent before and after were quite clear.
To his credit, on September 29 President Obama authorized $20 million to provide Ukraine with long-range counter-battery radars – which have been on Kyiv’s wish list. Some observers say the provision of the radars indicates that the U.S. might provide lethal defensive weapons to Ukraine if the Minsk process fails. The next day, the U.S. announced an additional $7.5 million in humanitarian assistance to those affected by the war in Ukraine.
Meanwhile, on the Syria front, Russia’s Federation Council unanimously (we could expect no less) voted to give Mr. Putin authorization to use military force in Syria. The vote was reminiscent of the one last year authorizing military action in Ukraine. We’ve seen this movie before, and the ending is not good. In short order, Mr. Putin dispatched Russian warplanes to conduct airstrikes in Syria. (Just a couple of days earlier, in an amazingly softball and embarrassingly fawning interview conducted by Charlie Rose [to wit: “You have a popularity rating in Russia that would make every politician in the world envious. Why are you so popular?”], Mr. Putin had cagily said: “Russia will not participate in any troop operations in the territory of Syria or in any other states. Well, at least we don’t plan on it right now. But we are considering intensifying our work with both President Assad and with our partners in other countries.” According to the latest news reports available at press time, the Russian airstrikes hit moderates who are opposed to Bashar al-Assad, including those supported by the U.S. A headline in The Daily Beast said it all: “Putin hits West’s rebels instead of ISIS.” It is clear that this dangerous move serves only Russia’s interests, certainly not those of world security.
Thus, the world must heed the warning delivered at the U.N. by President Poroshenko: “How can you urge an anti-terrorist coalition – if you inspire terrorism right in front of your door? How can you talk about peace and legitimacy – if your policy is war via puppet governments? How can you speak of freedom for nations – if you punish your neighbor for his choice?” Furthermore, in the concern about events in Syria, the world cannot forget about Ukraine.