Worldview with Suhasini Haidar | Ukraine crisis: can India keep walking the balance?

What makes India’s balance of relations difficult?

Two months after the US first warned the world Russia was planning to invade Ukraine, and after weeks of denying he had any plans to do so, Russian President Vladimir Putin declared a military operation on Ukraine, one which could change the course of the world, or simply end up repeating history.

Here is the sequence of events:

For the past month, Russia has sent close to 150,000 soldiers to its border with Ukraine, and then another 30,000 to Belarus to the north for military exercises in February, something US and EU have warned was a precursor to an invasion.

What does Putin and the Russian government say they want?

In response the US and its NATO allies – UK, European countries prepared a massive package of sanctions, including banning banks, putting sanctions on Russian lawmakers, stopping all exports, freezing Russian assets etc- US President Biden said their aims were to

However, while the US and EU say these measures are unprecedented, the fact is that they have announced many such measures in the past as well. Russia’s actions on Donetsk and Luhansk also fully mirror its past actions, all under the Putin presidency, driven by a sense of grievance about broken promises and the NATO threat to Russian security, as well his desire to restore Russia to some of its old glory.

On each occasion, the United Nations has criticised Russia, refused to recognise the change in borders, but eventually, Russia, as a permanent member of the Security Council has vetoed any action against it. After the Crimean action- the G-8 expelled Russia from the grouping of the worlds most developed nations.