A panel of distinguished international relations scholars and former diplomats spoke at the Ukrainian Crisis Media Center on March 19 about the ongoing crisis in Crimea.
Yuriy Shcherbak, the former ambassador of Ukraine to the U.S. and Canada, called the Russian annexation of Crimea a “global crisis,” saying it is “the beginning of the war against the system of international security.”
The experts emphasized the necessity of bolstering Ukraine’s military to prepare for further Russian incursions into Ukrainian territory.
Valeriy Chaly, the dseputy director of the Razumkov Ukrainian Centre for Economic and Political Studies, and Ukraine’s former deputy foreign minister said that Ukraine should “expect that there will be a military clash.”
In response, Vasyl Filipchuk, the former director of the European Union integration department with the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, said that Ukraine should “call on every country to provide military aid.”
Filipchuk also called on the international community to banish Russia from its ranks, saying that Russia had “lost every moral right” to be a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council.
Further, he said that the West has an opportunity to punish Russia for its aggression by undercutting the staples of its economy: oil and natural gas. He implored the West to “block Russian delivery of gas and other energy.”
The experts agreed that the Western response to the Russian annexation of Crimea has been heretofore insufficient. Shcherbak said U.S. sanctions against Russia were laughable
Though the experts called on the international community to do more to isolate Russia politically and economically, Dmytro Kuleba, the Chairman of the Foundation for Cultural Diplomacy UART, admitted, “There is probably no solution.”
The speakers agreed that although Ukraine has few non-military options, the government must refuse to acknowledge Crimea as a Russian republic: “Our position has to be one of non-recognition,” said Kuleba, arguing that if Ukraine tries to negotiate with Russia, it would implicitly acknowledge the legality of Russia’s aggression.
Drawing on the experiences of post-communist Poland, Shcherbak said that Ukraine’s “National security must come first…otherwise Ukraine may perish as a nation.” He emphasized that Ukraine should follow Poland’s example of pushing to join NATO for security assurances before pursuing integration into the European Union.
He also called on the newly formed government in Kyiv to buy “contemporary, modern weapons, and to “strengthen the role of intelligence and counter-intelligence.”
The experts feared that the Crimean annexation was only the first phase in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s plan to bring foreign Russophone territories into the Russian Federation.
“Putin wants to go down in history as the person who unified Russia,” said Shcherbak.
Kuleba suggested that Putin is transforming Crimea “into a huge military base…that can be a launching pad for aggression.”
Shcherbak compared Vladimir Putin’s Russia to ante-bellum Hilter Germany: “I believe something similar [to September 1939] is happening.”
