Theresa (Terri) Squires

BUS 447

Research Paper

                  Ukraine vs. Russia, Can Anyone Win?

          After months of protests by its citizens, and repeated calls to resign, Ukraine’s parliament voted to oust President Viktor Yanukovych from office in February 2014. The antigovernment protests started back in November 2013 when Yanukovych rejected a trade deal with the European Union in favor of closer ties with Moscow (Neuman, Ritchie). Yanukovych was also accused of sending his own private assassins to kill and maim demonstrators in Kiev’s Independence Square during those protests (Mackey). After his ouster, Yankuovych quickly fled to Russia (AP, 3 Mar 14). This was the catalyst that propelled Russia to action and less than a week later, Russia sent troops to protect its Black Sea Naval Fleet in Crimea. Armed militia also seized the international airport near the Crimean capital of Simferopol and blocked roads to the airport. Crimea is legally a part of Ukraine, but inhabited by Russians (Mackay, Sommerlad). Troops also seized the Crimean parliament in Simferapol and pushed through two votes. One vote was to make Aksyonov the Prime Minister of Crimea. The second vote called for a referendum to split the region off from Ukraine (Shuster). During the week since Russia seized control of Crimea, Russian troops also began disarming Ukrainian military bases on the Black Sea Peninsula (Dahlburg, Mills). Russia crossed political and ethical boundaries by making aggressive moves toward Ukraine and effectively put the rest of the world on alert.

          And what was the reason for the Russian invasion of the Crimean peninsula? Former Ukrainian President Yankuovych was quoted as saying “Ukraine is on the brink of civil war, people particularly in the Russian speaking Crimea are being persecuted for language and political reasons and “there are open acts of terror and violence” under the influence of Western countries” (AP, 3 Mar 14). But he does not give any evidence of this by citing where, when, and how etc. Russia’s President Putin then goes on record to state that “we have no enemies in Ukraine. Ukraine is a friendly state.” He then tempered those comments with a warning “that Russia was willing to use all means at our disposal to protect ethnic Russians in the country” (Sullivan, Isachenkov).   Another issue that has only been mentioned once throughout all of this is that Ukraine is the main route for Russian natural gas sold to Europe through the Nord Stream pipeline (Mackay).

          There is a strong fear among neighboring nations that Russia “may seek more opportunities for incursions in its former backyard. Many in Eastern Europe see Russia’s seizure of Crimea as similar to their experiences after World War II, when Soviet troops rolled through towns and villages, putting them under Kremlin control for decades”. Poland started making plans to upgrade their weapons and they also requested pilots and F-16 fighters for a “military exercise” in the country. Romania is also worried of the “possible contagion” (Mutler, Scislowska).

          On March 17, 2014 Crimea voted to secede from Ukraine and join Russia. (Dahlburg, Eckel). Putin stated once again that the rights of ethnic Russians in Ukraine had been abused by the new Ukrainian government and that Crimea’s vote to join Russia was legitimate. He declared Crimea peninsula part of the motherland (Isachenkov).  Putin signed the treaty of accession taking over the Crimea peninsula from Ukraine on March 21, 2014 (Witte, Englund). The last major military facility in Crimea fell into the hands of pro-Russian forces on March 22, 2014 (Pemble, Karmanau).

          The West has been struggling to find leverage to force Moscow to back off in the Ukraine turmoil by imposing mostly ineffective sanctions (Heintz). On March 24, 2014 the West went looking for ways to punish Russia for its annexation of the Crimean peninsula. They decided at an emergency meeting of the Group of Eight industrialized nations that they were suspending Russia until Moscow “changes course”. Russia’s response was that they did not seem to care (Pace). Putin then initiated a phone call to President Obama and asserted that Ukraine’s government was allowing extremists to intimidate civilians. But once again, where is the proof of this? Obama urged Putin to scale back his thousands of troops on the Ukraine border. Russia has stated all along that those troops are there for military exercises (Grove).

          What right did Russia have to step into another country and take a part of it over? Were Russia’s actions ethical? No they were not. Did they really believe that ethnic Russians were in jeopardy? Russia had Ukraine’s former president in its pocket. When he was kicked out, they needed any excuse they could muster up to start taking control. They are using the fact that Crimea is made up of ethnic Russians as an excuse to just stomp on in and take what they want. The Crimean peninsula has strategic ports. The other problem at hand is that no one believes that Russia is going to stop there. The ethnic Russians in Crimea did not have a problem with becoming a part of Russia again. But what about the rest of Ukraine, are they next? One answer to that is yes, Ukraine is next. Russia would then be able to secure the natural gas pipeline. And what about the neighboring countries such as Poland and Romania who clearly see what Russia is doing as a threat? Will Putin stop or not? And why should he be allowed to get away with it?

          There is only one solution to this mess. Russia has to give Crimea back to Ukraine.  And if Russia is worried about its pipeline, then it should renegotiate the terms they already have with Ukraine. But I do not see this happening. And unfortunately the European Union can’t impose too many sanctions on Russia because it would adversely affect their own countries’ fragile economies. In addition, it depends on Russia for 30 percent of its natural gas (Tayler). It seems to be a win-win situation for Russia. They have nothing to lose.

          It took some time but the former ousted leader of Ukraine has now gone on record to say that he was wrong and that it “was a mistake and he acted on his emotions” (Kriel, Isachenkov) with regard to Crimea. In the meantime, Russia pulled some five hundred troops away from the Ukrainian border, but still left tens of thousands in place (Mills, Isachenkov). The U.S. believes that they are using the troop buildup to intimidate Ukraine (Lee).

          This situation has been going on for over a month already. There are no clear answers and Putin isn’t talking. But NATO has now started to beef up its defenses in response to this crisis. And as expected, “Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said any increase in NATO's permanent presence in eastern Europe would violate a 1997 treaty on NATO-Russian cooperation” (Grove). So, if NATO keeps doing what it thinks is the proper response for the rest of its nervous member nations adjacent to Russia and Ukraine, they will be in violation of a treaty. But it seems to be okay that Russia is violating the same treaty with the Crimea annexation. According to the treaty, “NATO and Russia pledge to refrain from the threat or use of force against each other or other states, to respect the independence and territorial integrity of all states and the inviolability of borders” (Mendelsohn).

          There are so many stakeholders involved here, the numbers are staggering. Ukraine’s government has a social and ethical responsibility to protect them from threats and takeovers. Ukraine’s citizens trust that its government will do the right thing.  But its government has to make sure that the needs of its people are met by following a stakeholder model of ethics. All of the countries involved rely on each other for commerce, including the buying and selling of natural gas. But Russia does not seem to have any integrity and is acting like the big bully next door with the buildup of forty thousand troops at the Ukrainian border.

          “Public opinion in the U.S. is firmly against involvement in the Ukraine crisis. According to a recent CBS poll, 61 percent of Americans believe that their country has no responsibility to intervene in the situation, and 65 percent do not want to offer military aid to the beleaguered country” (Tayler). And who can blame the public for this considering the years of fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan? And where will the money come from to pay for it?  “If the United States and NATO do get involved militarily in deterring Russian aggression against Ukraine, how will they manage the risk of the conflict escalating into a nuclear showdown?” (Tayler). How chilling is this realization? It is truly scary to even think about.

          Putin has an agenda that the world is waiting to see. And now we have to think about all of the ethnic Russians that are living in other countries. Is he going to try to annex those countries too?  It is almost the same as saying, well there are Russians in Florida who have been mistreated. I think we will just step in and take that from you so we can help them. There is nothing to stop Russia from doing that anywhere in the world if they are allowed to get away with Crimea. There needs to be some kind of negotiation between all of the major players in this crisis. The Ukraine, Russia, the United States, NATO, and the European Union all need to get together and hash things out. But the main fact remains, Russia has to do the right thing and give back Crimea to Ukraine. The world is waiting to see if that will happen.

Works Cited

Associated Press, “Russia’s Push in Ukraine”. Newsday. 4 Mar 2014. Print.

Dahlburg, John-Thor, and Laura Mills. “Russians: We’d welcome Crimea” Newsday. 8 Mar 2014. Np. Print.

Dahlburg, John-Thor, and Jennifer Barrios. “Crimea votes to split” Newsday. 17 Mar 2014. A5. Print.

Grove, Thomas. “Russia says wants answers on NATO troops in Eastern Europe” Reuters.com. 3 Apr 2014. Web. 6 Apr 2014

Heintz, Jim. “Putin call Crimea sovereign”. Newsday. 18 Mar 2014. A4. Print.

Isachenkov, Vladimir. “Russia takes Crimea”. Newsday. 19 Mar 2014.A7. Print.

Kriel, Caro, and Vladimir Isachenkov. “Ousted Ukrainian leader: I was wrong”.Newsday. 3 Apr 2014. A8. Print.

Lee, Matthew. “Deadlocked over Ukraine”. Newsday. 31 Mar 2014. A7. Print.

Mackay, Don. “Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych accused of sending in secret 'Titushky' death squads to kill protesters”. Mirror.co.uk. 20 Feb 2014. Web. 20 Mar 2014.

Mackay, Don. Sommerlad, Nick. “Russia invades Crimea to 'protect its Black Sea naval fleet' as Ukraine tensions soar”. Mirror.co. uk. 28 Feb 2014. Web. 20 Mar 2014.

Mendelsohn, Jack. “The NATO Russian Founding Act”. Armscontrol.org. May 1997. Web.10 Apr 2014.

Mills, Laura, and Vladimir Isachenkov. “Russia Pulls out some troops”. Newsday. 1 Apr 2014. A38. Print.

Mutler, Alison, and Monika Scislowska. “Fear Factor”. Newsday. 16 Mar 2014. A12-A13.Print.

Neuman, Scott, and Carol Ritchie. “Ukrainian President Voted Out; Opposition Leader Freed”. Npr.org. 22 Feb. 2014. Web. 20 March 2014.

Pace, Julie. “Russia cut from G-8”. Newsday. 25 Mar 2014. A8. Print.

Pemble, Adam, and Yuras Karmanau. “Last Major Crimea base falls”. Newsday. 23 Mar2014. A5. Print.

Shuster, Simon. “Moscow’s Man”Time magazine. 22-25. 24 Mar 2014. Print.

Sullivan, Tim, and Vladimir Isachenkov. “Putin takes a step back from the brink”. Newsday. 5 Mar 2014. A6-A7. Print.

Tayler, Jeffery. “10 Tough Questions Obama Needs to Answer on Ukraine”. Theatlantic.com. 1 Apr 2014. Web. 7 Apr 2014.

Witte, Griff, and Will Englund. “Putin Wraps up Annexation”. Newsday. 22 Mar 2014.A7.Print.