Early End of Russia-Ukraine War Must be the Top Priority Now

The Ukraine-Russia War has seen immense human suffering, but in one other sense also this has been an extremely worrying war. There has always existed the additional and even more worrying danger in this war that it can spill over to become a wider war in which Russia comes into direct confrontation with the USA, several European countries, and NATONATOThe North Atlantic Treaty Organization, an intergovernmental military alliance.. Such a confrontation can turn into a nuclear war. More recently, the high risks of a direct confrontation of Russia with the USA have reduced, but the dangers of a direct confrontation with one or more European countries (in addition to Ukraine) have increased. What response this will draw at the level of NATO is not clear, but surely any direct confrontation of Russia with even one or a few more European countries, in addition to Ukraine, will be extremely dangerous.

In the worst case scenario, a world war and a nuclear war can arise from this flash point.

Hence this war is simply too dangerous, not just for the countries involved but the entire world, to be allowed to continue for too long. The best possible peace efforts that the world is capable of must be mobilized to end this war without further delay.

In fact, the need for early peace here is so obvious that ‘peace, peace’ is being said even by some of those whose conduct has not really helped the cause of peace in the past. In the course of peace efforts, the sincerity of various sides and stakeholders for peace will be tested.

Peace processes must advance despite the fact that it is not possible for Russia and Ukraine to reach an agreement on all issues. So leaders and diplomats must seek to achieve an agreement on some issues and the other issues, the more difficult issues, can be resolved in the course of later negotiations. The recent Iran peace agreement was also reached without resolving all issues.

Issues like territory are difficult to resolve and an agreement can be reached for peace which leaves such issues to be resolved later. Several countries have lived with unresolved border issues for years, sometimes decades, without ever fighting any big war. The most likely resolving of territory issues on a temporary basis is to follow the line of controlLine of ControlA military demarcation line indicating the current position of forces, rather than a legally recognized international boundary. situation on the day of ceasefire, with a few minor adjustments of convenience made with mutual agreement if possible. This can result in very artificial divisions in some places which is bad of course but it is better than continuing a war that any day risks becoming a wider war and many times more destructive war.

The ideal situation for Ukraine would have been to remain a neutral country, benefiting from trade and friendly relations with both Europe and Russia. However, the chances of this were lost after the west-aided coup of 20142014 Euromaidan RevolutionA wave of demonstrations and civil unrest in Ukraine that led to the ousting of the pro-Russian president, heavily disputed by Russia as a Western-backed coup., which launched Ukraine firmly on a path of never-ending hostility to Russia that has continued to this day.

This irrational and harmful policy should end now and along with diplomatic efforts, multilateral efforts should also be made to start improving relationships between the governments and people of the two neighboring countries.

This irrational and harmful policy should end now, and along with diplomatic efforts, multilateral efforts should also be made to start improving relationships between the governments and people of the two neighboring countries with a long history of close ties.

When negotiations on more difficult issues start, this should be accompanied by goodwill and confidence building measures. There should be a sincere desire for peace. There should be an understanding that the negotiations may be slow and prolonged but these will not be allowed to break down, although mutually agreed ‘breaks’ can be provided, so that there can be a time for reflection and discussion, and then another round of negotiations can start.

At the same time, relations between Russia and some European countries, which have deteriorated rapidly in the course of this war, should also be improved with multilateral efforts. Both sides have so much to gain from improved relationships, and one hopes that rationality will assert itself together with a strong desire for peace.