Ending the war in Ukraine: practical, if painful, possibilities

The world is in the midst of the most dangerous European security crisis since World War II. The war in Ukraine has caused enormous destruction and loss of life, and millions of people have been displaced. Some perceive a risk that the conflict could spread further into Europe or set the stage for later conflicts in countries bordering Russia, or even increase the possibility of war over Taiwan. There are finally some calls for thinking about how to achieve a ceasefire and a general settlement of the Ukrainian-Russian issues, in the context of the broader European security situation. Actually, the time to begin to think about this was February 24, when the Russian invasion began, but there has been an understandable reluctance to do this until now.

The tragedy of this situation is compounded by the fact that Russia and Ukraine ought to be close friends. It is after all largely true that geography is destiny. A more compelling reason is the extraordinary amount of history, language, religion, and culture the two countries share. To be sure, in Soviet times, especially under Stalin, Ukraine was sometimes grievously abused, but the two Republics were always tightly connected. Russian children do not grow up wanting to kill Ukrainians. Intermarriage is common, and Ukrainian names are found everywhere in Russia.

So this war is quite baffling, at least to Western minds. Persistent efforts by some in the West to pull Ukraine away from Russia may be one dissonant note in this story. In any case, the friendly and cooperative state of relations that ideally ought to exist between these two neighbors seems very distant indeed today and that is the situation with which the rest of the world must deal.