• Home
• /
• Opinion

Revoking militarism

This is not only a positive development, but also comes as a sigh of relief to security-starved Kiev in its fight against the pro-Kremlin insurgents. The parliament, Duma, had empowered Putin in March to use military for overseas adventures, which resulted in the annexation of Crimea without even a shot being fired. Ukraine and the West waited this climbing down the ladder, as they tried to lure Russia into meaningful talks over the future of the region.

Had it not been for the personal diplomacy of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, the policy shift would not have come in Moscow. The unilateral ceasefire announced by Poroshenko accompanied with the safe passage offer to pro-Russian militants, if they moved out of the territory in the stipulated timeframe, had helped in easing the crisis.

Now is the time for Russia and Ukraine to rewrite a new chapter in their relations, as they rub shoulders in trilateral talks involving the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe. But as far as Kiev is concerned, it will have a hard times ahead as Russia keeps Crimea under its rule. This can act as a major irritant in their bilateralism, and the need of the hour is to find a way out that is judicious and well in norms with the international law. Anyway, it will be an Utopian approach hoping Moscow to abdicate from the Black Sea peninsula issue, as it is now part of its westward-expanded geopolitics.

All that they should instantly do is to scale down the tension in the insurgency-hit regions of eastern Ukraine and let the various ethnic groups settle down under a new social contract. Russia’s open-ended support to Ukraine in realising civil order will act as a catalyst in furthering an environment of peace and security across the region. Putin has taken the first step in the right direction.