Poor Francis seems at a loss as to how to size up the situation in Ukraine. Thinking if he could just have a friendly chat with Vlad, preferably at a more intimate table, he could get the Russian president to cease and desist in his special military operation. After all, the Pope got assurances from Viktor Orban that Russia is ready to end the operation on May 9, although most observers see this as the day Putin will officially declare this operation a war. How else to explain his massive losses?
Pope Francis would have probably been better advised not to get himself involved in this conflict, as neither country answers to the Vatican. But, I suppose he felt the need to intercede after calling special attention to it at Easter Mass by having Russian and Ukrainian Catholic women carry the cross together. One certainly senses that the Pope's heart is in the right place but his naivety is astounding! Does he really think Ukraine simply should lay down its arms and accept the loss of its seacoast oblasts in the name of peace?
This "soft spot" could be a product of his formative years in Argentina, when many Latin Americans saw the Soviet Union as the only viable alternative to the relentless pressure the United States put on Central and South American countries, fueling innumerable civil wars in the process. The Pope could still harbor that grudge as it appears do many elder Latin American leaders like Lula da Silva, who is hoping to unseat Jair Bolsonaro in the upcoming Brazilian presidential election. They seem to think the same formula now applies to Ukraine.
However, Vladimir Putin is clearly the aggressor here, not the US nor NATO. Putin wants Ukraine to not only accept the loss of Crimea, which he annexed in the name of Russia in 2014, but also the entire Donbas region, which he recognized as the autonomous states of Luhansk and Donetsk back in February of this year, and had the Duma formally approve a few days later. It's abundantly clear that Putin has no plans to give back any of this newly acquired territory, which now includes Kherson, a sizable chunk of Zaporizhia, and a sliver of Kharkiv. Not only has he firmly planted his forces in these oblasts but has his "green men" running around planting flags to designate his conquests. It's only a matter of time before he starves the Azov battalion out of the steelworks and can fully claim Mariupol.
Yet, the Pope and many other deluded world leaders believe there is still room for negotiation. Newly re-elected French President Macron was recently on the phone with Vlad hoping to work something out. This after having had to fight off a right-wing candidate openly backed by Putin. I suppose these world leaders are angling for a Nobel Peace Prize, but they all come back with the same unacceptable terms - Ukraine must accept it no longer has sovereignty over these conquered lands. It is literally like we have stepped back into Medieval times.
I understand that world leaders desperately want to avoid this war spilling over into other countries, but at the same time they cannot appease Putin in any shape, way, or form. To do so will be to further embolden him, as he already has his eyes set on Moldova, and no doubt will be tempted to resurrect his territorial claims to Georgia.
At the dark heart of this war remains Putin's clearly stated desire to recreate the boundaries of the Soviet Union, firmly under control of Moscow. When the Pope says none of this would have happened if NATO hadn't been "barking at Russia's door," he clearly has no idea what he's talking about. Putin has harbored these imperial ambitions ever since he took control of the Kremlin in 2000, waiting for that propitious moment when he could act upon them. NATO is simply the excuse he needed to launch his long overdue offensive.
What's worse is that Putin has used the Orthodox Church to give legitimacy to his imperial ambitions, for it has imperial ambitions of its own. The Moscow Patriarch desperately wants to reclaim Kyiv, which he has long voiced his objections to it anointing its own patriarch. Father Kyrill has come under massive criticism for this within his own church, but it hasn't deterred him. In his mind, all Orthodox Slavs should answer to Moscow. It's that damn Pan-Slavism that has lurked in the Russian soul for the better part of five centuries.
Even among Russia's intelligentsia, this Pan-Slavism is hard to shake. Many of them do not see Ukraine as separate from Russia, they just don't believe the two countries should be fighting over it. Putin has demanded allegiance from the Russian intelligentsia ever since the annexation of Crimea in 2014. A letter was circulated at the time with the signatures of many of the leading artistic and literary figures. There were quite a few notable names on that letter, but there were also some key dissenters, among them Boris Akunin.
Akunin said at the time how deeply saddened he was that the intelligentsia would cow to the Kremlin in this way, likening it to the Soviet artistic and literary unions that previously controlled artistic endeavors in the country. However, his literary career is completely independent of the Kremlin. He didn't need any state funding to write his best-selling historical novels. Now, we see the fruits of Putin's labor, and many of these same artists and intellectuals are appalled at what they signed onto, as Akunin prophetically said would be the case. They issued a new letter, just the same, calling for Putin to not invade Ukraine. Not surprisingly, Ukrainians didn't put much stock in this letter or attempts by Russian intelligentsia to wash their hands clean of the matter by now claiming it to be Putin's War. Whatever Pan-Slavism there might have been before the war is irrevocably shattered as the result of the war, and this includes cultural ties.
There is no turning back, either to feudal notions of the past or Putin's map making. He must be stopped! It is as simple as that. We can try to wear Putin down and hope that Russians will awake from their slumber and try to retake their country from his autocratic control, or we can more boldly aid Ukraine in reclaiming its lost territory, and that includes Crimea. Russia has no right to any of these contested provinces, and should be forced to revoke any claims to them. We are long past the point of negotiating with Putin on his terms.
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