WHY UKRAINE MATTERS

Book excerpt: The 24 February 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine is part of a long Russian siege and occupation that began since the 2004 November Orange Revolution. These essays are based on Fazle Chowdhury’s analysis reflecting his chilling observances. The threat of war had been looming since March 2021 as Russia began deploying troops along the Ukrainian border, including in Belarus, in the breakaway Moldovan region of Transnistria and occupied Crimea. Diplomacy looked to be the only instrument for peace, but met by a "Chamberlain-eques" reaction Europe's heavyweights; France, Germany and Italy, have taken the cautionary peacemaker role between Kremlin and Washington, while Kyiv’s sovereignty remains threatened and makes the other Baltic States nervous. The conflict is centered on NATO's eastward expansion, which Russia considers a betrayal of the West after the fall of the Soviet Union. Is it a Kremlin maneuver to weaken the European Union and NATO through Ukraine?