In the Ukraine conflict, Russia is arguing with the West about NATO’s eastward expansion. Vladimir Putin wants security guarantees and Ukraine wants to join NATO. An overview.
Kiev/Moscow – Russian tanks on the border with Ukraine have shocked the West in a way that the Soviet Union’s nuclear saber-rattling was perhaps able to do recently. But even in the 21st century, in a decade of digital armaments, the deployments of military units are clearly having an effect. Russia* wants to continue to press the West for security guarantees and to prevent an eastward expansion of NATO. For weeks, top diplomats have been struggling to find a peaceful solution to the crisis, but a war in Europe* is still not out of the question. Fraud and deception are meanwhile as allegations in the room.
Conflict between Russia and NATO: With the collapse of the Soviet Union, states strove west
The conflict between Russia and NATO has existed for much longer*. After decades of the Cold War, the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 and finally the collapse of the Soviet Union, the countries in Central and Eastern Europe were faced with rapid changes within a very short time, which also brought new security policy challenges with them. With a denser network of binding partnerships between the individual nations, there was an opportunity for more security and cooperation – at least from the perspective of the West and NATO.
With the collapse of the then Eastern Bloc, NATO began to meet with possible partner countries in Eastern Europe and Asia for the purpose of cooperation. After laying the foundations for future cooperation from 1991, the Partnership for Peace came about in 1994. In addition to NATO, 20 European and Asian countries joined this connection. Each state determined individually to what extent the cooperation should take place. Joint military maneuvers or peacekeeping missions have often taken place in the past.
Partnership for peace: Ukraine, among others, relied on cooperation with NATO
From the start, the list of states that have decided to join the Partnership for Peace included numerous EU states, Switzerland, Yugoslav republics and former Soviet republics – including Ukraine. The developments of the past decades show that fourteen signatory states have now joined NATO. As a result, NATO was expanded eastward, the last step of which to date was the incorporation of the landlocked state of North Macedonia into NATO on March 27, 2020.
The eastward expansion of NATO has been a nuisance in Russia since the beginning. As early as 1993, when Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic were striving to join NATO, then-Russian President Boris Yeltsin feared the extent of eastward expansion and referred to the Two Plus Four Treaty, which he believed ruled out the possibility of the territory becoming part of NATO East may be expanded. The frustration over the eastward expansion of NATO and the interpretation of the contents of the treaty, which finally regulated the reunification of Germany, offer enough potential for dispute even after almost three decades – this is also currently evident in the Ukraine crisis leading to a spiral of violence* could be, again.
Vladimir Putin accuses the West and NATO of fraud in the Ukraine conflict
The head of the Kremlin and President of Russia, Wladimir Putin*, currently accuses the West and NATO of fraud in the Ukraine conflict*, insists on security guarantees and wants to prevent the integration of Ukraine into NATO. However, it cannot be precisely proven whether NATO is breaking the contract with its eastward expansion. International law is not violated, but some of the allegations in the never-ending dispute between NATO and Russia are probably based on verbal agreements that can no longer be checked today.
Eastward expansion of NATO: More and more former members of the Warsaw Pact are joining NATO
The fact that in the course of the collapse of the Soviet Union the Warsaw Pact was also dissolved in 1991 and that more and more former member states turned to NATO with the support of Western nations is viewed with gnashing of teeth in Russia today. In the 1990s there were also protests against the possible eastward expansion of NATO, but these were sometimes appeased. This may also be due to the good relationship with Germany, the second most important NATO member at the time, and its Federal Chancellor Gerhard Schröder (SPD), who as a great friend of Russia* supported the eastward expansion of NATO and probably knew how to put in a good word for them in Moscow.
Schröder is now Chancellor a. D. and as a gas lobbyist for Russian corporations. However, distrust of the West is still very pronounced in Russia. Ukraine, which is currently a member of the Partnership for Peace, is practically the last country in front of Russia and represents a bulwark against NATO’s eastward expansion – at least from the point of view of Wladimir Putin*. Ukraine has been striving for NATO membership for some time.
Ukraine has been planning to join NATO for decades – membership has been a national goal since 2019
Since 1997, a NATO-Ukraine charter has stipulated cooperation between the partners. This agreement also provides that Ukraine can freely decide on an alliance. Plans to join NATO have been going on for some time: in April 2008 Ukraine was given a basic perspective of joining. The Crimea crisis in 2014 did not change anything about the desire to become a member of NATO. Since then, the nation has been in an open Conflict with Russia – which is now becoming a war in Europe* could become. The then President Petro Poroshenko announced that he would continue to lead his country into NATO.
Membership in the EU and NATO is now a national goal for Ukraine – a constitutional reform in February 2019 is responsible for this. Since 2021, Ukraine and NATO have been working even more closely together, as the country receives direct support from the alliance as part of the Individual Partnership Action Plan. After the annexation of Crimea, support for joining NATO also increased among the population. In 2019, almost 50 percent were in favor of membership in the alliance. The current President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, also emphasized that Ukraine would continue to strive for NATO membership even under the current circumstances.
Ukraine conflict: Vladimir Putin opposes NATO eastward expansion
While Ukraine continues to strive for union with the West, it is fighting back Wladimir Putin* vehemently opposed to the eastward expansion of NATO. From the Kremlin’s point of view, one Calm down the Ukraine conflict* can only be achieved through legally binding guarantees from the West, which exclude Ukraine’s admission to NATO. In addition, demands Putin* that the situation between Russia and NATO in 1997 – i.e. before Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary joined NATO – must be restored. From a Western point of view, this is probably a utopian demand. *kreiszeitung.de, fr.de and merkur.de are offers from IPPEN.MEDIA.
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