“Putin may have started the war but Nato seemed to have triggered the war”
Professor Chris Landsberg of the University of Johannesburg (UJ) blamed Nato for starting the war during an online panel discussion on the Russia-Ukraine crisis on Wednesday.
The virtual conversation, which included former US Ambassador to Ukraine Steven Pifer and Russian Ambassador Ilya Rogachev, focused on how the war began, why the crisis grew, and what could be done to stop the war and save lives.
Rogachev began by pointing out the “ongoing war” in eastern Ukraine, and the attacks in the Donbas region where thousands of Russian nationals were living, which “the western countries have turned a blind eye to“.
“We had to protect our citizens … I can invoke a number of other reasons that the Russian minority suffered there,” said Rogachev.
“The Ukraine government also openly said they will not implement the Minsk agreements that were agreed to,” he said.
He added that laws were passed that prohibited Russian culture as well as Russian media, radio stations and the Russian language.
“We tried to solve the situation diplomatically with two drafts sent to the US in December but the responses we received basically said no,” Rogachev said.
He went on to say that Nato’s expansion and infrastructure relocation closer to Russia’s borders was a direct danger to the country’s national security.
Landsberg also questioned if NATO poses a threat to international peace and security, bringing up the issue of NATO’s engagement in Libya.
“Nato together with UN sanctions went in there and destabilised a country,” said Landsberg.
“In Ukraine, Putin may have started the war but Nato seemed to have triggered the war … There has been a long build-up and this war was inevitable,” he said.
Landsberg added that the war may have become about regime survival for President Vladimir Putin, but for Nato “it has become about regime change” in Ukraine.
NMMABUNDA
