Cape Town - During an online panel discussion held on Wednesday around the Russia-Ukraine crisis, Professor Chris Landsberg from the University of Johannesburg (UJ) called out Nato for triggering the war.
The virtual discussion which included ambassador Ilya Rogachev from the Russian Embassy in South Africa and former US Ambassador to Ukraine Steven Pifer debated around how the war started, why the crisis escalated, and what could be done to stop the war and save lives.
Rogachev began by pointing out the “ongoing war” in eastern Ukraine, and the attacks in the Donbas region where thousands of Russian nationals were living, which “the western countries have turned a blind eye to“.
“We had to protect our citizens ... I can invoke a number of other reasons that the Russian minority suffered there,” said Rogachev.
“The Ukraine government also openly said they will not implement the Minsk agreements that were agreed to,” he said.
He added that laws were passed that prohibited Russian culture as well as Russian media, radio stations and the Russian language.
“We tried to solve the situation diplomatically with two drafts sent to the US in December but the responses we received basically said no,” Rogachev said.
He further added that the Nato expansion and its infrastructure movement closer to Russia's borders was considered a direct threat to Russia's national security.
Furthermore, Landsberg questioned whether Nato is a threat to international peace and security and raised the point on Nato's intervention in Libya.
“Nato together with UN sanctions went in there and destabilised a country,” said Landsberg.
“In Ukraine, Putin may have started the war but Nato seemed to have triggered the war ... There has been a long build-up and this war was inevitable,” he said.
Landsberg added that the war may have become about regime survival for President Vladimir Putin, but for Nato “it has become about regime change” in Ukraine.
IOL