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Ukrainian Diplomat: Now Russia’s Nuclear Fist Is Restrained

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Ukrainian Diplomat: Now Russia’s Nuclear Fist Is Restrained
OLEKSANDR KHARA

How Finland joining NATO is changing the situation in the region.

Finland officially joined NATO today. Now the Alliance includes 31 countries. How does this change the balance of power in the region? The Charter97.org website talked about this with Ukrainian diplomat, political scientist, expert of the Maidan of Foreign Affairs Foundation Oleksandr Khara.

— Finland's entry into NATO is a strategic defeat for Russia, which they are aware of, but on the other hand, they are powerless to do anything.

There are several important points here. Let's start with a kind of a philosophical question: the reason for Finland's entry into NATO, the rejection of the long-term policy of neutrality and “Finlandization”, when the USSR and then Russia had influence on the country's domestic policy, was not the Russian aggression against Ukraine and possible aggression against Finland, but the Kremlin's demand to stop the process of NATO expansion. In the strategy of the Finns, the ability to quickly become members of NATO was extremely important.

The second point is that Finland's accession to NATO gives the Alliance more opportunities to protect the Baltic states. In fact, the Baltic Sea becomes NATO's inland sea. There is a small enclave in Kaliningrad that threatens Europe with nuclear weapons, and there is also St. Petersburg. However, the logistics in case of war and the assistance that NATO countries can provide through the territory of Sweden and Finland, as well as the military potential of Helsinki, is simply enormous. The Baltic countries, after the Finns, were probably the most joyful when they learned about Finland's entry into NATO.

The next moment — Finland not only has 1,340 kilometers of border with the Russian Federation, but also borders on the Kola Peninsula, where the Russian nuclear fist is concentrated. Now NATO has a great opportunity to monitor the situation, and in the event of a conflict, strike, which will neutralize the threat to Europe, and even more so to the United States, since there are submarines with intercontinental nuclear warheads.

Therefore, Finland's entry into NATO is a sure loss for Putin. Of course, I hope that the nail in the coffin of the Russian Federation will be driven by Ukraine when it becomes a member of the Alliance, and the Black Sea becomes an inland water body of NATO. Then Russia will not have the opportunity to threaten and expand both in the West and in the South. And then the Russians, as Professor Preobrazhensky said, will have to deal with “their tasks and cleaning out the barn”. It is then that the Russians will have some prospects for improving their country so that it does not kill strangers, but gives its citizens the opportunity to live like normal people.

— How can the Russian Federation respond to the decision of Helsinki to join the Alliance?

— Russia has nothing to answer to the accession of Finland and Sweden to NATO. Now it is at war with Ukraine, it has lost the most combat-ready equipment and people. Russian propaganda constantly says that they “oppose the expansion of NATO”. But we see that this is not the case. Russia did not attack Finland. The second point is that many weapons and air defense systems located on the Finnish border were transferred by the Russians to Ukraine. If the “aggressive NATO theory” worked, then the Russian Federation should have strengthened in these areas. Moreover, the armed forces of Finland, despite the fact that they are 23 thousand people, in the event of war can increase to 216 thousand, they have a hundred Leopard-2 tanks, another hundred Leopard-1 are in reserve, in the near future Helsinki will receive sixty F-35s, the most modern combat aircraft, not to mention just under three hundred MLRS. Finland is a country on which Russia could break its teeth even if it was not in NATO. And now their combat potential will only increase.

So this is great news for the entire free world. And, despite the fact that the Russians do not realize this, a step has been taken towards them trying to make their country normal.

— Before the war, Putin demanded that NATO return to the 1997 borders, one of the explanations for the outbreak of war in Ukraine was that “from Kharkiv, Alliance missiles will reach Moscow in ten minutes. As a result of the actions of the Kremlin, NATO has only expanded, and the “approach” of missiles from Finland to St. Petersburg will be a matter of seconds. How will Russian propagandists explain this failure to their citizens?

— There is an expression, “spit in their face and they’ll say it’s raining”. I think they'll come up with something. But first and foremost, NATO has never threatened Russia. This Alliance was created in order to help the European states after the Second World War to resist the expansionist plans of the Kremlin. The goal has never changed: there was confrontation, both NATO and the USSR were ready to press the nuclear button. The aggressive entity that we were told about in Soviet schools and institutes is, of course, sheer propaganda. We see that time has shown it.

As for the “flight time”, we see the statement of the Fuhrer of the “Russian world” that he will deploy nuclear weapons on the territory of the junior Fuhrer. This decision was motivated by two points. The first is the provision of shells with fissile uranium by Britain to Ukraine. The word “uranium” in this phrase means nuclear material, but it's not a nuclear weapon, not a tactical one, nothing. Naturally, this was a “lecture for collective farmers”, and this was precisely the excuse for the “collective farmers”.

The second point is that even after the deployment of nuclear weapons in Belarus, the United States does not plan to deploy new weapons in Europe — either nuclear or non-nuclear. There is no need for this. The weapons that are in Europe are enough to contain the Russian Federation, and in case of war — to defeat it or destroy it, if this is the maximum level of confrontation.

Therefore, the decision of the Russian Federation does not work, it is pure propaganda and, perhaps, in the minds of Putin, Naryshkin and Patrushev there are reptilians who suggest that “America is going to do all this”, however, from the point of view of the documents adopted by NATO and the United States, there are no changes.

When Putin spoke about the deployment of nuclear weapons on the territory of Belarus, he mentioned that “the Americans are doing the same thing, since there are U.S. nuclear weapons on the territory of five European states, which in the event of a conflict with the Russian Federation will be used against it.

This is also a far-fetched thing, because there still were U.S. nuclear weapons in Europe in Khrushchev's time. The number of countries where nuclear weapons were deployed has not changed. Here is an important point: the Germans do not have the right to use these nuclear weapons until Article 5 of the NATO Collective Security Treaty is activated. Then the German pilots on bombers will carry out the relevant tasks.

Therefore, we understand that there is blackmail on the part of the Russian Federation, and there is a political component here — an increase in control over Belarus and Lukashenka. I would say that the deployment of Russian nuclear weapons on Belarusian territory is Lukashenka's idiocy. I don't like the term “enemy of the people”, but in this case he is a real enemy of the people. After all, he actually abandoned the non-nuclear status, remembering both Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and Chernobyl — the pain we share with Belarus. He does everything to make Belarus a target in the event of a conflict.

I want to remind you that during the Cold War, given that a second or third nuclear potential was deployed in Ukraine, in the event of a war with the USSR, the American plans were to strike Kyiv and Minsk first in order to intimidate Moscow and end the nuclear war. You can imagine that the junior Fuhrer makes the entire Belarusian people a target if the Fuhrer of the “Russian world” decides to go into conflict. And he does it all the time. Just yesterday there was news that special subdivisions of submarines were being created that would be carriers of the Poseidons.

Putin constantly threatens Europeans and Americans with nuclear weapons. Naturally, it was not for nothing that Putin's “Chinese friend” declared that it was unacceptable to use nuclear weapons. Indians, President Biden and European leaders spoke about it.

Therefore, if we take the “armageddon scenario”, if Putin understands that he cannot stay in power or decides to scare someone, to use nuclear weapons against Ukraine or the Baltic states, this launches an escalation ladder and not Russians, but Belarusians will be the first to suffer. Because there is Cold War thinking – if everything goes up the stairs of escalation, then in order not to destroy the whole world, you need to deal a painful blow, a message, stop the crazy person who used nuclear weapons.

Therefore, we’ve started with the positive events that Finland's accession is a step towards Russia becoming a normal country. However, now we see a threat to the Belarusian people. You know perfectly well that it was not the transfer of ammunition to Ukraine that caused the deployment of weapons. After all, they removed the nuclear-free status of the country from the Constitution of Belarus with the illegal referendum. It took place back in February last year. No matter how Putin tries to present it, only people who have a bad memory can believe such propaganda. It is not necessary to understand foreign policy in order to understand that such things as changing the Constitution and removing such an important clause do not just happen. Therefore, the decision to deploy nuclear weapons was made long before the referendum.

In fact, it’s only worsening Lukashenka’s position. After all, the Russian military and special services received even greater influence on Lukashenka. This is a tremendous stupidity of his that is bad not only for his own power (we are least interested in this), but also for the Belarusians. It cannot be called otherwise than a betrayal of the Belarusian people.

— After the outbreak of the war, discussions began that there might be other regional military alliances. For example - Great Britain, Poland and Ukraine. Do Belarus and Ukraine have their future in NATO or there may be other options?

— I am a supporter of the formula of a peaceful, free and undivided Europe. It assumes that Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, and Georgia will become NATO members. Again, Putin’s fear is not that “aggressive NATO” will be there that will “bomb the Russian Federation and take away oil and gas,” which were sold to them for a penny, and then the money was stored in the West. Russia's biggest fear is the impossibility of capturing other territories and expanding its influence. Therefore, for such peoples who are between powerful European states capable of defending themselves directly or in the Alliance, as well as between the Russian Federation, which is the successor to the empire, the USSR, does not imagine itself otherwise without expanding territories. So, NATO is the only possible choice.

Also, the Russians deny the Belarusian and Ukrainian peoples, because we do not exist for them. Definitely, we, the Belarusians, Ukrainians, Moldovans and Georgians must be protected from the genocidal intentions of the Russian Federation in order to survive. The fact that they exist, I think, became obvious during the war. Putin spoke about this openly and more than once. The Russian Orthodox Church, as a division of the FSB, constantly says on this occasion that “there is no Ukrainian state”, that “the jihad exists” and that “those who go to war and kill Ukrainians will end up in Orthodoxy Moscow paradise".

It's obvious that everything is ideologically targeted towards the destruction of both Ukraine and Belarus. There is no other option to protect the states than to become part of NATO. It is necessary to revive the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in terms of cooperation together with the UK, the Baltic states and some other states. Great Britain has clearly shown that the Black Sea is a priority for them. But this cannot be instead of NATO and be a guarantee of non-aggression. Although Britain is a nuclear state, its nuclear potential is not comparable with Russia, which has the largest nuclear power in terms of the number of tactical weapons, in terms of the number of strategic weapons. It has parity with the United States.

Therefore, we have no other options than to be part of the West from a military, political and economic point of view. However, we are to develop this till we have no such kind of cooperation with Britain, the Baltic countries, Poland or Romania. I can recall Finland as an example here because they were looking for such partnerships in order to protect themselves when preparing for the conflict and not being a NATO member state.

Naturally, I hope that the Belarusian people will be liberated from the illegal local Fuhrer and make the right decision that they want to live freely and in a country where the rule of law exists, and not the right of force, propaganda and the rule of the FSB and the KGB.

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