7 August 2014
Russian peacekeeping soldiers should be in full preparedness for fulfilling their tasks, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu told an Aug. 6 meeting with a peacekeeping infantry division, as reported by the ITAR-TASS news agency. Russian peacekeepers may be needed “unexpectedly,” he said, “which is precisely why subunits and brigades of peacekeeping forces should be in constant combat preparedness.” Brigade commander Vitaly Gerasimov said his special forces are engaged in peacekeeping training operations that involve engineering surveying, escorting humanitarian convoys, providing security for refugee camps, evacuating the wounded and transferring refugees through humanitarian corridors.
The Russian government has accumulated about 20,000 soldiers on its Ukrainian border and may dispatch them as peacekeepers into Ukraine under the guise of a humanitarian or peacekeeping mission, said a NATO statement released on Aug. 6, as reported by the Reuters news agency. Stating the conflict in Ukraine was fueled by Russia, NATO said in a statement that the troop build-up had further escalated a dangerous situation. “We’re not going to guess what’s on Russia’s mind, but we can see what Russia is doing on the ground – and that is of great concern,” NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu said in an e-mailed statement.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has become hostage to his own attempt to restore Russia’s superpower status and as a result can’t back out of Ukraine, former Polish President and Ukraine expert Aleksander Kwasniewski told an interview published on Aug. 6 in Gazeta Wyborcza. “His goal is to create the Eurasian Union, renew Russia’s status as a superpower and he doesn’t want to – and now he can’t – do that without Ukraine,” Kwasniewski said.
The Russian government continues to think that destabilization, pressure, propaganda and money will return Ukraine to Moscow’s side, he said. “It can turn out that the Ukrainians, even reduced to economic catastrophe, can say: our dignity and sovereignty is worth more than an agreement with Putin,” he said. Western sanctions have been unpleasant and a large burden, but haven’t changed his political strategy, he said.
Zenon Zawada: We agree with the NATO position that the Russian government can dispatch its soldiers into the Donbas region under the guise of a peacekeeping or humanitarian mission. That way, it can secure a permanent military presence on Ukrainian territory, from which to carry out further destabilization of the country.
We also agree with Kwasniewski’s assessment of Putin’s strategy in Ukraine. Indeed Putin is in a position in which he can’t afford a military defeat in Donbas. Not only would he face embarrassment, but his vision of creating the Eurasian Union and renewing Russia’s superpower status would fall apart. So the deliberate revealing of the peacekeeping card increases the likelihood of escalated Russian interference in Ukraine.