It’s a century ago this year that Europe was wrenched apart by the first truly global conflict of mud and blood — the First World War. While there are none alive today who can relive those horrors, sadly there are many who can recall the brutality and unprecedented death and destruction of the Second World War. And if we are to believe Ukrainian acting Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenuk, Europe is on the brink of a Third World War, with Russian President Vladimir Putin as its instigator.
Yatsenuk’s misguided and unfortunate comments came on the heels of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s pointed words in Moscow that the West had its own political ambitions and was not acting in the best interests of Ukraine.
With key government and security buildings in several Eastern Ukrainian cities under the control of pro-Russia separatists, and with occasional violent clashes breaking out across the region that has a slight ethnic-Russian majority, the situation locally remains tense.
But all sides must realise that barricades and armed men are not enough to cast the continent into a bloody and hot war. No, indeed, for the best part of six decades, nuclear armed East and West squared off without a shot being fired directly at each other.
And when Crimea was illegally annexed by the Kremlin by proxy referendum and Duma vote, the West raised not one finger in anger, other than a list of sanctions against Ukrainian and Russian apologists.
With a presidential election due in Ukraine in a month, the time for compromise is upon us.
The way forward in this standoff is not to add the fuel of rhetoric to the fires of ethnicity, or by claiming that a Third World War is at hand. That simply isn’t so.
What is at hand is a standoff that can be ended with international agreement and dialogue on the ground. Russian language rights need to be restored in the east of Ukraine. And barricades need to come down, in the east — and in Kiev. And more sanctions won’t end the stalemate.
