ACTION ALERT: Tell NATO and the US
To Stop Escalating Conflict in Ukraine

CODEPINK & Yurii Sheliazhenko / World BEYOND War

 (January 11, 2022) — Right now, there is a dangerous escalation of tensions at the Russia/Ukraine border and the real possibility of military conflict between the world’s two most heavily armed nuclear states – the United States and Russia. The US and NATO have played a major role in exacerbating this conflict and we must immediately demand that they pursue vigorous diplomacy to promote de-escalation and seek a negotiated solution.

We are partnering with the global peace community because it’s imperative that we stop this from escalating into a massive war. Sign the petition to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and US negotiator Wendy Sherman!

Since 2015, the Minsk II Accord has successfully prevented a new escalation of the Civil War in Ukraine. But NATO and the United States have encouraged the ÓUkrainian government to ignore its obligations under Minsk II, and to instead reassert absolute sovereignty over the Donbass region. They have supplied powerful weapons, which Ukraine has deployed and used in Eastern Ukraine. 

The United States bears a great deal of responsibility for this crisis, starting with its support for the violent overthrow of the elected government of Ukraine in 2014. NATO expansion also contributed greatly to the roots of the present crisis by violating the agreements that brought the original Cold War to an end and reunified Germany. 

NATO should have kept its promise not to expand eastward. Instead, it has added 11 member countries that were once either Soviet republics or members of the Warsaw Pact, to triumphantly march a Western military alliance right up to Russia’s borders. Now the situation is teetering on the brink of a major escalation. 

Russia has always been opposed to Ukraine entering NATO. In 2008, when Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko first applied for NATO membership, President Putin called Ukrainian membership “a direct threat” to Russia. NATO is a military alliance that should have dissolved with the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact. It should certainly not be expanding to include Ukraine. 

ACTION: In this urgent moment, call on NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and US negotiator Wendy Sherman to act to deescalate the crisis! Sign the petition to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and US negotiator Wendy Sherman to stop a US-Russia war before it starts!

THE LETTER

Dear US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman
and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, 

We write to you as people concerned about the dangerous escalation of tensions at the Russia/Ukraine border and the real possibility of a military conflict that could easily spiral out of control. We feel that the United States and NATO have played a major role in exacerbating this conflict and must now play a vital role in its de-escalation.

NATO expansion contributed greatly to the roots of the present crisis by violating the agreements that brought the original Cold War to an end and reunified Germany. NATO should have kept its promise not to expand eastward. Instead, it has added 11 member countries that were once either Soviet republics or members of the Warsaw Pact, to triumphantly march a Western military alliance right up to Russia’s borders.

Russia has always been opposed to Ukraine entering NATO. In 2008, when Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko first applied for NATO membership, President Putin called Ukrainian membership “a direct threat” to Russia. NATO should recognize and respect Ukraine’s independence and neutrality, and should not antagonize Russia by allowing it to enter NATO, and neither the US nor NATO should go to war with Russia to reunify Ukraine by force. 

Tensions with Russia have also been exacerbated by counterproductive NATO military exercises clearly intended to intimidate Russia. There is no equivalence between Russia conducting military exercises and troop movements within its own borders and NATO members flying in thousands of North American and Western European troops and deadly weaponry to conduct exercises directly across those same borders. 

We cannot risk a military confrontation between the world’s two most heavily armed nuclear states–the United States and Russia. What we need instead is vigorous diplomacy to promote de-escalation and seek a negotiated solution, to avoid war and advance the Minsk II diplomatic process. That will be in the best interest of all NATO nations, the Russian people, all the people of Ukraine, and the world community.

Signed:

• For a more detailed background on the crisis in Ukraine, read artile below.

Towards peace,
Medea and the entire CODEPINK team: Alice, Allison, Ann, Ariel, Carley, Danaka, Emily, Farida, Jodie, Justina, Kelly, Lauren, Leonardo, Madison, Marcy, Marissa, Mark, Michelle, Nancy, Olivia, Paki, Teri, Shea, and Suzie

Background on the Crisis in Ukraine

Right now, there is a dangerous escalation of tensions at the Russia/Ukraine border and the real possibility of a military conflict that could easily spiral out of control. NATO has played a major role in exacerbating this conflict and we must now call on NATO to play a role in its de-escalation.

The Minsk II Accord has successfully prevented a new escalation of the Civil War in Ukraine since 2015. Ukraine’s people are divided, with millions speaking Russian and looking to the East, while others in the West are more oriented towards Europe. The Minsk II Accord, negotiated by France, Germany, Russia, Ukraine and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), recognized these divisions and sought a political resolution to them, one that would explicitly include greater autonomy for the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.     

But NATO and the United States have encouraged the Ukrainian government to  ignore its obligations under Minsk II, and to instead reassert absolute sovereignty over the  Donbass region. They have supplied more powerful weapons, which Ukraine has deployed and used in Eastern Ukraine. 

The United States bears a great deal of responsibility for this crisis, starting with its support for the violent overthrow of the elected government of Ukraine in 2014. In persisting with its support for the coup, the United States simply ignored the February 2014 agreement for a political transition negotiated by the European Union and the Foreign Ministers of France, Germany and Poland, all NATO members. 

The US-backed coup reversed the will of the majority of Ukrainians who elected the Yanukovych government, and led directly to the secession of Crimea and the Donetsk and Luhansk regions from Ukraine. 

And yet, under the leadership of NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, NATO has played a supporting role as the United States has internationalized the post-coup political division of Ukraine and escalated it into a geopolitical crisis. Ukraine is not a NATO member, and NATO is a military alliance, not a universal international organization like the United Nations. NATO can therefore play no legitimate or helpful role in this crisis, except to support the diplomatic efforts of its members, the OSCE and the UN. 

NATO members France, Germany and Poland have all played constructive diplomatic roles in the crisis in Ukraine in the past, and NATO should support diplomatic efforts by its European members to resolve this European problem, instead of acting as a sheep-dog to round them up and herd them into line behind dangerous US policies. 

NATO expansion contributed greatly to the roots of the present crisis, by violating the agreements that brought the original Cold War to an end and reunified Germany. NATO should have kept its promise not to expand eastward. Instead, it has added 11 member countries that were once either Soviet republics or members of the Warsaw Pact, to triumphantly march a Western military alliance right up to Russia’s borders.

Russia has always been opposed to Ukraine entering NATO. In 2008, when Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko first applied for NATO membership, President Putin called Ukrainian membership “a direct threat” to Russia. But neither the US nor NATO \should go to war with Russia to reunify Ukraine by force. NATO should recognize and respect Ukraine’s independence, neutrality and the will of all its people, and fully support the Minsk II Protocol.

Tensions with Russia have also been exacerbated by counterproductive NATO military exercises clearly intended to intimidate Russia. There is no equivalence between Russia conducting military exercises and troop movements within its own borders and NATO members flying in thousands of North American and Western European troops and deadly weaponry to conduct exercises directly across those same borders. 

The world cannot risk a military confrontation between the world’s two most heavily armed nuclear states–the United States and Russia. What we need instead is vigorous diplomacy to promote de-escalation and seek a negotiated solution, to avoid war and advance the Minsk II diplomatic process. That will be in the best interest of all NATO nations, the Russian people, all the people of Ukraine, and the world community, and that is what we must demand from NATO’s Secretary-General. 

Global Civil Society Urges to Stop Saber-Rattling
Over Ukraine and Negotiate Sustainable Peace

Yurii Sheliazhenko / World BEYOND War

UKRAINE (January 11, 2022)— The escalation toward major war in Ukraine is unnecessary, and both West and East share equal responsibility to avoid it. If global leaders fail to negotiate sustainable peace in good faith instead of blame game and violent settlement of their power dispute on the local battlefield in Ukraine, they will be held accountable via nonviolent means by the people of Earth.

Dubious claims of legitimacy of the 2014 violent power grabs in Kyiv, Crimea and Donbass are not acceptable. In all these situations both U.S./NATO and Russia aggressively intervened, pursuing dangerous and delusional great power policies.

Today the major geopolitical players continue to undermine independence, democracy, human rights and security of people in Ukraine, breaching international peace contrary to the UN Charter.

Global leaders recklessly exchange threats to use military force and to wage economic war against each other if their claims, or so-called red lines, will not be respected. Both “great powers” wish to own Ukraine and claim their “right” to concentrate their deadly weapons, troops and bases wherever they wish, as near to each other as they wish. Such claims not only contradict each other but blatantly cross red lines of common sense: nobody has a right to hold a gun or nuke to another’s head.

Global civil society condemns escalatory behavior of all sides of the new cold war before and during their current peace and security talks.

Saber-rattling in and over Ukraine should be stopped, Russian and U.S./NATO military forces should be withdrawn. International moratorium should be introduced on arms supply to Ukraine and Russian-controlled Donbass and Crimea.

Ukrainian government should stop total mobilization of population to war and abolish conscription or, at least, guarantee the right to conscientious objection to military service in full compliance with current international human rights standards (in future, conscription should be prohibited by the international law). Peaceful settlement of current conflict should be achieved on the basis of strict compliance with ceasefire previously agreed in Normandy and Minsk formats, in further inclusive and comprehensive peace talks between all state and non-state actors.

Europe should reject NATO’s demand for greater military spending, demand that the U.S. get its nuclear weapons out of Germany, Netherlands, Italy, Belgium, and Turkey, insist on restoration of the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty to take U.S. missiles out of Romania and Poland, refuse the U.S.-led push for antagonism toward Russia and China, recognize the desire for peace on the part of the people of the region, and demand that the United States take the first major steps to deescalate the crisis. This will require recognizing international violence, not diplomacy, as a threat to credibility. Ideally, all nuclear powers should condemn the doctrine of mutually assured destruction and support the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

All stakeholders should bear in mind red lines of people of the world: (1) no militarization and arms race by the cost of welfare, human rights, and environmental harmony; (2) nationalism and imperialism should step aside for development of inclusive, diverse, and fair democracy; (3) all conflicts should be settled peacefully, any buildup of structural violence is intolerable, especially talking about war, preparation to war, or threats of war.

There is no “just war” or “right side”; militarists and right-wingers on all sides provoke escalation of violence in desperate attempt to “divide and rule” and preserve their outdated war machine when it becomes more and more obsolete after universal commitment to sustainable development, peace culture, nonviolent global governance, economic and social cohesion of all people at the planet.

We need to spend on social and environmental justice, on diplomacy more than we spend on war machine. Our strategic goal should be to trash all weapons, turn all soldiers into happy civilians and reduce to zero military spending. To build the nonviolent global security system, we should demilitarize security, manage conflicts without violence, and continue to build all-encompassing peace culture.

Peace on Earth should come first before political ambitions.

Yurii Sheliazhenko is executive secretary of the Ukrainian Pacifist Movement and a board member of the European Bureau for Conscientious Objection. He obtained a Master of Mediation and Conflict Management degree in 2021 and a Master of Laws degree in 2016. He is a journalist, blogger, human rights defender, a legal scholar, an author of academic publications and a lecturer on legal theory and history. He lives in Ukraine.