On March 2, at the United Nations, 141 states, from all parts of the world, condemned the Russian aggression against Ukraine and demanded that Russia withdraw its military forces. Turkey and the United Kingdom, with many other countries, co-sponsored this initiative.
World opinion was effectively united in its view that Russia’s assault on Ukraine was an unprovoked and illegal attack against a sovereign democratic state. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine had violated the rules that govern international behavior.
This war was not inevitable. It was Putin’s choice to launch the invasion. Ukraine did not even remotely threaten Russia, although it’s possible that the Kremlin, which wants Ukraine to be its satellite state, was unsettled by a free, democratic Ukraine pursuing its own sovereign, independent policies.
It was not just Russia's bloody and unjustified attack on a neighboring country that appalled the world. His deceitful behavior before he launched a war on Ukraine also shocked everyone.
Before the invasion, Western intelligence agencies had accurately forecast Putin’s plan for a large-scale operation involving attacks against Ukraine launched from Belarus, the Black Sea, the Donbass region and Russia. To be perfectly honest, it was hard to believe, at the time, that the Kremlin could be contemplating anything so awful.
But sadly, all Putin’s and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s denials about an invasion proved to be deliberate lies. The massed Russian troops on Ukraine’s borders were not simply carrying out military exercises, as they insincerely claimed. The only conclusion one can reasonably draw is that Russia had planned for this from the outset and was never serious about engaging in diplomacy with Ukraine or NATO.
Not to anyone's surprise, the Russian disinformation continues. What we are seeing on our television screens is not, according to Putin, a war or an invasion but a "special military operation." This is a euphemism that the British writer and author of "Animal Farm" and "1984," George Orwell, would have roundly condemned.
Russians who are protesting against the war are being arrested. A new law threatens those accused of spreading "fake information" about the war in Ukraine. Calling "the special military operation" a "war," or reporting other inconvenient truths is punishable with up to 15 years in prison.
This Russian aggression in Ukraine has imperiled the huge gains of the post-war period. It is a tragedy. So what should the world be doing about it?
Turkey has taken a position of principle against Russia’s invasion from the outset. It has fully supported the international diplomatic condemnation at the U.N. and in NATO.
It has taken the legally correct steps set out in the Montreux Convention and restricted the passage of warships through the Turkish Straits. It is offering much-needed humanitarian support. The Turkish Red Crescent (Kızılay) and the Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) were amongst the first to reach those fleeing the fighting.
Turkey’s offer to facilitate talks between Kyiv and Moscow is sincere. I hope, despite evidence to the contrary, that Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu’s meeting with Lavrov and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba in Antalya will lead to some progress.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has set out a six-point plan for Ukraine that the world should rally.
First, we must mobilize an international humanitarian coalition and work together to establish an immediate humanitarian cease-fire and allow civilians safe passage, food and medical supplies.
Second, we must do more to help Ukraine to defend itself, especially by providing defensive equipment.
Third, we must maximize the economic pressure on Putin’s regime and the oligarchs that support him.
Fourth, we must prevent any creeping normalization of the Russian action in Ukraine. We cannot allow the Kremlin to bite off parts of Ukraine’s national territory and inflict immense suffering and then creep back into the international fold.
Fifth, we should always be open to diplomacy and de-escalation, provided the government of Ukraine is fully involved.
Sixth, we must act now to strengthen Euro-Atlantic security and prepare to support those other countries, like Moldova, Georgia and the western Balkans who are potentially at risk of Russian aggression.
This is an agenda all 141 countries that condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine can get behind.
None of us wanted it to come to this. But it has. And we can take heart from the unity we are showing in response.
