Oleksandr Pankieiev: The West must stand together on Russian aggression

Russia’s build-up of troops on Ukraine’s border makes headlines worldwide and keeps the leaders of liberal democratic countries worried. Russia has amassed heavy arms and more than 100,000 soldiers at Ukraine’s eastern border and in occupied Crimea as well as in Belarus. We should also remember that Russia still maintains its unlawful military presence in Transnistria against the will of Moldova.

These circumstances unquestionably put Ukraine in a dangerous situation, but Russia states that it is only protecting its interests and makes out Ukraine and NATO to be provocateurs. Surely, the accounts of the past two decades clearly show that it is Russia who has acted aggressively. Indeed, in 2008 Russia also attacked Georgia, and Vladimir Putin claimed in that very same year that “Ukraine is not a country.” 

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Editor’s Note: This op-ed was published by Edmonton Journal. The Kyiv Independent is aggregating it as a recommendation to our readers.