Diplomatic life returned to the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, as the United States announced its intention to return American diplomats to Kyiv this week, which analysts considered “shows the level of confidence in the West that Ukraine completely controls most of the north and west of the country.”
Over the past days, at least 17 countries have returned their diplomats to Kyiv, most of them are members of the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) that support Ukraine in the war against Russia that began two months ago.
The return of foreign diplomats shows that there is some semblance of safety in the Ukrainian capital and a vote of confidence that the Russian operation in the city may be over, at least for the time being.
The magazine emphasized that “the return of ambassadors of Ukraine’s allies is a symbolic victory for Kiev and a show of solidarity from its friends in Europe, who provided the Ukrainian government with economic support and military aid to help them confront Moscow.”
Western trust
Commenting on this, Mitchell Belfer, a Czech-Canadian analyst who specializes in international security and political affairs, said that “the return of the diplomats to Kyiv shows the level of confidence of the United States and its European allies that Ukraine will win the war in most of the north and west of the country.”
Belfer, who is the director of the European Gulf Information Center in Rome, added, in statements to “Sky News Arabia”: “Although the war will continue in the east and large parts of the south, the Western alliance feels confident enough that Kyiv is safe, which was also demonstrated by the visits of Western leaders. recently.”
He ruled out that the West would be pressuring Russia with this step, saying: “I do not think that Russia is under pressure to stop the war through the return of American and European diplomats to Kyiv, and I do not think that much can deter the Russians at this stage, but it is clear that the war has turned east.” .
On the possibility of Russia targeting the embassies of Western countries, the political analyst stressed that “it is possible that foreign embassies will be affected by accidents, but this usually leads to greater embarrassment for the aggressor, and I do not think that Russia will deliberately strike foreign embassies in Ukraine.”
On the future of the current crisis, Belfer said, “The war is not over yet. Russia is facing a united and resolute alliance more frankly than it has faced in this conflict, and I think one of the unintended consequences is that countries like Switzerland, Sweden and Finland have also shown that they support the Western alliance rather than their neutrality “.
He noted, “The second thing to remember is the fact that Ukraine asserted its sovereignty, and no argument or invasion to the contrary can undermine what is now clearly a state with a national identity. Russia has created a mechanism to develop a unique Ukrainian national identity with a common memory.”
New US Ambassador
During the visit of Secretary of State and Defense Anthony Blinken and Lloyd Austin to Kyiv on Sunday, which is the first visit of US officials to Ukraine since the start of the Russian operation against Ukraine, we announced the return of diplomats to Kyiv.
US President Joe Biden also announced his intention to nominate veteran US diplomat, Bridget Brink, to serve as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Ukraine, a position that has been vacant for more than two years, according to a White House statement.
Among the countries that announced the return of their diplomats to Kyiv and the reopening of their embassies again are France, Italy, Turkey, Lithuania, Slovakia, Slovenia, the Czech Republic, Portugal, Belgium and Austria. The European Union also reopened its diplomatic missions in Kyiv this month.
During his visit to India, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson also announced his country’s intention to reopen its embassy in the Ukrainian capital.
Prior to the current crisis, many countries withdrew part of the staff of their embassies in Kyiv and their families against the backdrop of a possible exacerbation of the situation in Ukraine, and moved some of them to the western city of Lviv, while the majority returned to their country, while American diplomats were working from the Polish city of Rzesso.
In another sign of the stabilization of the situation in the Ukrainian capital, several senior European and American officials have made several visits to Kyiv in recent days, including European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, the presidents of Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Defense and Foreign Affairs America is the last.
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