Murali's Writeups...

Prof. Alexander Stubb, who was formerly the Prime Minister of Finland and is presently a professor of International Relations in Italy has virtually ruled out any possibility of an Internationally Mediated Settlement for the present Ukraine Crisis. According to him, the war in Ukraine will come to an end only when: 1. Russia is militarily defeated in the conflict 2. Mr Vladmir Putin is removed from the political leadership of Russia. Prof. Stubbs's views are worthy of respect as he earlier acted as a Mediator in the Russian aggression of Georgia 2008. According to him, Russia has now become an Imperialist Power. If the international community had acted in 2008 with as much vigour as it has in the 2022 Ukrainian Conflict, the military annexation of Crimea could have been avoided. From the point of view of a Mediator, the present Ukrainian crisis come under the category of a ‘ Realistic conflict ’ between two Sovereign nations. Both Russia and Ukraine will relentlessly purs

1. The armed conflict on the Ukraine border had been going on for about 8 months. As of date, there is no possibility of cessation of hostilities. What began as a ‘ Russian Special Military Operation’ has evolved into a full-fledged war. Together Russia and Ukraine had lost about 150,000 lives of soldiers, besides grave loss of civilian human lives and property damage.  With the Ukrainian forces making substantial military gains, Ukraine might retake most (if not all) the positions occupied by Russia after Feb 2022. The world has now begun to worry about what Mr Putin will do if a militarily defeat becomes imminent. In fact, Russia has joined the list of countries (after North Korea and Pakistan) that threatened to use Nuclear Weapons in an armed conflict even though there is no first nuclear strike against them. Hence, the return of normalcy at the Russian-Ukraine border is very important for the world to avert the Third World War.   2. In the beginning, it was Ukraine that wan