I would like to respond to some of the points made by Barbara Tomaskovic-Devey in her response (“Seriousness of Ukraine situation,” Feb. 7) to the My Turn I wrote about Ukraine published recently in the Recorder.
Russia did not invade or “dismember” Ukraine in 2014, as Ms. Tomaskovic-Devey stated. This is a very one-sided approach to what actually happened. The majority (82%) of the people living in the Crimean peninsula are Russian speaking. Crimea was annexed by Russia in 1783 and later became an autonomous republic in the Soviet Union. They took a vote in 2014 on whether they wanted to support the new “coop-induced” Ukrainian government with its neo-Nazi connections, or to continue to have strong ties with Russia. The vote of the Crimean people was overwhelmingly for the latter.
Another fact which Americans may not realize is that Russia has its only western naval base with access to the Mediterranean on the Black Sea at Sevastapol in Crimea. They will not, and probably should not, give this up. The United States has warships in the Black Sea, as well as a naval destroyer there. I can imagine the kerfuffle that would ensue if Russia sent large warships close to our shores.
This is a short version of a complicated relationship, but in my mind one that leans strongly toward Russia. Russia was promised back in the early 1990s that NATO would “not move one inch east.” NATO, with of course the United States being its main military force, has over and over again broken that promise, and now there are 13 Eastern European countries accepted into NATO with no sign of ending the expansion. Of course there is fear in Russia that Ukraine might follow this path and because it shares a long border with Russia, this could prove to be very dangerous since the U.S. and NATO has been busy setting up missiles in Europe close to Russia’s border.
In my first piece on this situation I brought up the war threatening outrage of the U.S. when Russia set up missiles in Cuba 90 miles from our border. They were removed. Wouldn’t it be fair for NATO to reciprocate in kind and remove the NATO missiles now set up even closer than 90 miles from the Russian border? Russia has stated clearly that it has no intentions of invading Ukraine or other nearby countries unless there is some unreasonable situation which threatens their own safety. Russian President Vladimir Putin has stated over and over that he has no intention of invading Ukraine. But at the same time he has a responsibility to protect Russian people and interests, just as we not only protect ours, but invade other countries who are minding their own business pretty much at will. For instance, Iraq, Afghanistan, Yugoslavia, Lebanon, El Salvador, Panama, Haiti, Yemen, Libya, just to name a few, with vast loss of lives.
So yes, I would say that with support from other countries this is a disagreement that can be settled by the parties involved, if only the, yes I will say it, war-mongering United States will just mind its own country and let the rest of the world do the same.
Patricia Greene is a Greenfield writer and peace activist.