By this time, the Russia-Ukraine war has reached around one month. Of course, many efforts including economic sanctions against Russia, diplomatic talks of the United States, France, Germany and some other countries and bilateral talks directly between Russian and Ukrainian delegates were made. But no efforts got any light of hope in resolving the crisis and there is no sign of ending the war. War is going on in different cities of Ukraine including Kyiv, Mariupol and Kherson. Thus, it remains unclear whether the existing efforts can help to resolve the ongoing war without further destruction of residential buildings, industries and offices in Ukraine, killing of soldiers and civilians and the complete defeat of any party.
Of course, sanctions and the assistance of military weapons are less likely to solve the problem. Rather, Russia has imposed some retaliatory sanctions against the West and threatened to use nuclear weapons if its existence is at risk, though it has not made the potential target(s) of nuclear attacks clear. Moreover, the assistance of weapons to Ukraine by the Western countries may increase the strength of Ukraine and make the win of the war by Russia somewhat delayed at best but it is not enough at all for defeating powerful Russia and compelling it to leave Ukraine. Indeed, Russia started the usage of sophisticated weapons after the arrival of Western weapons in Ukraine.
But political/diplomatic efforts always keep the hope of resolving any crisis. Even if diplomatic/political efforts have failed so far, Dhaka Opinion Magazine views that diplomacy remains as the only option at this stage and can still be an effective path. Some countries including Israel and Turkey have good relations with Russia and Ukraine and their diplomacy was hoped for better outcomes at least to a certain extent. But their efforts did not bring out any notable outcomes yet. Among other countries, China, which has very good relations with Russia, can play important roles to help end the crisis. But how much China will play roles and its efforts will be successful remains unclear.
To me, without any significant roles of the two parties especially at the presidential level, it seems difficult to find any acceptable solution at the present stage through diplomatic efforts of other countries, though the grounds can be improved at least somewhat by efforts of other countries. Since both Russia and Ukraine have some reasonable interests, their direct talks can help resolve the conflicts by realizing the reasoned and acceptable interests of both parties. Even if the direct presidential talks can be helpful, it remains unclear whether Russia will be interested in resolving the crisis at this stage through bilateral talks with Ukraine without the removal of sanctions imposed by the West upon it in reaction to the invasion of Ukraine.
Indeed, the interest of the Ukrainian President to direct talks with his Russian counterpart was not positively responded to by Russia. It seems that economic sanctions and some other issues may work as deterrent factors for Russia to the direct talks at the presidential level and resolution of the crisis at this stage. Yet, it is desired that direct presidential talks, which may facilitate finding an acceptable solution to the crisis, be held between Russia and Ukraine. In this respect, the roles of other countries are also important. Otherwise, it remains unclear whether the war will end without a significantly destructive win and further deterioration of situations with potential disastrous consequences beyond Ukraine.
Nota bene: The editorial views expressed are written by the Editorial Team (the Chief Editor) of Dhaka Opinion Magazine.
