While new Russian military maneuvers are about to begin in Belarus, in northern Ukraine, “all the preparations for war are there”, estimated Tuesday January 18 on franceinfo Galia Ackerman, historian and journalist, specialist in Russia and the post-Soviet space. “We are at a stage where Russia can launch an attack in Ukraine at any time”, estimated the spokeswoman for the White House, speaking of a “extremely dangerous situation”.
franceinfo: Is the threat of a Russian attack on Ukraine real?
Galia Ackerman: If you listen to the Russian media, what Russian officials are saying, including President Putin, it seems quite plausible. I’m not saying there will be a war. But all the preparations for war are there: there is a concentration of troops, there is extremely aggressive talk and ultimatums that cannot be satisfied because they are totally unrealistic. One has the impression that they are only a pretext to invade Ukraine.
Why would Russia want to invade Ukraine?
Because there has been hatred of Ukraine for several years. This hatred increased sharply following the Ukrainian revolution: I remind you that to this day, we speak not of Maidan, not of a popular revolution but of a coup d’etat, we speak of Nazis in the power, we demand that the Minsk agreements be carried out 100% but above all in the interpretation of Moscow and it is quite clear that Russia does not want to tolerate that its near foreigner takes a direction which it does not like, that to leave Russia’s sphere of influence completely.
Does that mean that Ukraine is becoming a kind of pawn today, a country that serves as a confrontation between NATO and the United States on one side and Moscow on the other?
This is the Russian explanation. They say all the time that Ukraine itself is of no importance, that it is a terrain that NATO, the United States, the European Union, use to bring together military equipment directed against Russia, to the onslaught of the country. It is totally false. 73 german russia experts published a letter in the german newspaper “Die Zeit”, they say that everything russia says about its threatened security is wrong: russia has 3rd army in the world, that it is a nuclear country which has more nuclear energy than the United States, France and Great Britain combined. Nobody can threaten Russia, but she assumes the pose of an offended person and demands that her demands be met: that is to say not only the demilitarization of Ukraine, but the demilitarization of all of Eastern Europe. ‘is.