Make Ukraine A Buffer State Between Russia & the EU

It’s time to stop the BS, NATO doesn’t even want Ukraine.

Let’s be real, Ukraine will never be allowed to join NATO or the EU. It’s too corrupt and politically unstable for NATO and too economically weak for the EU.

On February 16, 2022, Lt. Col. Daniel Davis (U.S. Army Retired) stated the obvious to host Laura Coates on CNN: the United States needs to acquiesce to Putin and agree that NATO membership is off the table for Ukraine. As he noted, President Biden has declared that the U.S. military will not send troops into Ukraine to fight the Russians. In short, Ukraine is not worth a nuclear war. This standoff needs to come to an end.

Oh no! We can’t give in to Putin. God forbid!

Sorry, we must give in to Putin’s NATO demand. Even ignoring the historical and cultural connections between Russia and Ukraine, there is no way that Russia will ever allow such a significant neighboring country to join the opposition. It is bad enough that the former Soviet Republics of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia have been admitted to NATO. For Russia, Ukraine (or Georgia) joining NATO is akin to when our neighbor Cuba cozied up to the Soviet Union in the late 1950s and early 1960s, which ultimately led to the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. Since mid-January, Moscow has threatened to deploy weapons to Cuba and Venezuela if the U.S. does not back off regarding Ukraine. Tit for tat.

A nonaligned Ukraine is the only solution. It worked for Thailand during the era of imperialism. 

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, when Britain controlled India, Burma (Myanmar), and most of the Malay Peninsula and France controlled Indochina (Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos), Thailand remained an independent, neutral territory between the two empires’ imperial holdings. The establishment of this buffer zone was largely due to the savvy political maneuvers of the Siamese (Thai) rulers, most notably King Chulalongkorn aka Rama V (born: 1853, king: 1868-1910), who modernized and Westernized Siam (Thailand). Although forced to cede some territory to Britain and France, Chulalongkorn maintained his nation’s sovereignty. Plus, he was also beloved by his own people for abolishing slavery. 

Ukraine must follow the Thai model to survive.

It’s not easy to be stuck in middle between the EU and Russia, but that is Ukraine’s reality. Western Ukraine identifies with and longs to be closer to its Western and Central European neighbors, while eastern Ukraine more closely identifies with Russia. It is a mixed nation where 17% of the population is ethnically Russian. There is no clean or easy way to divide up the territory and make everyone happy. By remaining nonaligned, Ukraine has nothing to lose and everything to gain. They can trade with both regions.

Russia must make concessions for this to work.

For the promise that Ukraine will never be admitted to the EU or invited to join NATO, Russia must pledge to never invade Ukraine again, the same way that the United States agreed to let Cuba be a Soviet-supported communist nation 90 miles off our coast. Russia must also stop all aid to the separatists in the Donbas region (Donetsk and Luhansk) and draw-down the 150,000 troops currently encircling most of Ukraine. You’ve made your point Vladimir, but we all win – especially the Ukrainian people – if this crisis comes to a peaceful and diplomatic end.