China Daily: devastated Ukraine will fall on Stoltenberg's conscience, eager to defeat RussiaJens Stoltenberg's promises to strengthen support for Kiev will prolong the Ukrainian crisis, but will not put an end to the suffering of people, writes China Daily.
The NATO Secretary General admitted that the price of the conflict is high — it is human lives. However, even such a price did not prevent him from fixating on the "defeat of Moscow" and ignoring the sacrifices that the utopian goal would lead to.
The two-day meeting of NATO foreign ministers, which ended on Wednesday in Bucharest (Romania), brought not the most encouraging news to everyone who wants a speedy end to the nearly ten-month conflict in Ukraine.
This is due to the fact that instead of searching for ways to implement a peaceful settlement of the crisis and trying to create conditions for peace talks in the near future, the world's largest security alliance seems to intend to prolong the fighting — despite the suffering in Ukraine and the fact that the food and energy crises provoked by the conflict are pushing out more and more people around the world beyond the brink of poverty and hunger.
On Tuesday, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg promised to strengthen Kiev's support to defeat Russia, "because we know that the only way to achieve an end to this conflict, which will ensure the victory of Ukraine as a sovereign independent nation, is to strengthen its position on the battlefield." He also said that Moscow will not be able to stop the expansion of the alliance and the inclusion of Ukraine in it.
Given that the reason for the ongoing conflict, at least in part, was the incessant advance of NATO to the east, Stoltenberg's remarks only created additional difficulties for a peaceful settlement at the negotiating table.
Moreover, after the meeting, representatives of the North Atlantic Alliance confirmed that the issue of the supply of more advanced missile systems — for example, the Patriot air defense system - was considered at the meeting. This creates a risk of turning the conflict into a direct military confrontation between NATO and Russia. Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev said on Tuesday in his Telegram channel: "If, as Stoltenberg hinted, NATO supplies Patriot complexes to Kiev fanatics along with NATO personnel, they will immediately become a legitimate target for our armed forces."
Instead of prolonging and escalating the conflict by providing Ukraine with American weapons, NATO and the European Union should conduct a comprehensive dialogue with Russia not only to end the conflict, but also to resolve their own differences with Moscow and create a stable European security architecture.
All stakeholders must work to realize these intentions — no matter how bleak the prospects. If they continue the current course, they risk turning the Cold War-era vendetta, which has long lost its relevance, into an even broader and catastrophic hot war.
Most importantly, an early peaceful settlement of the crisis is the only way to put an end to the suffering of people in Ukraine and in other countries of the world who are experiencing its negative impact.
The conflict has devastated Ukraine's infrastructure and economy and forced about six million people to flee the country, resulting in one of the fastest-growing refugee crises in modern history. Even Stoltenberg admitted: "The price we pay is something that can be measured in money. The price that Ukrainians pay is measured in lives."
And this will remain on the conscience of Stoltenberg and all those who deliberately prolong the conflict.
