Ukraine crisis centring Crimea heading for severe complications

Zaglul Ahmed Chowdhury | Published: March 16, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2024 06:01:00

Â The last-ditch efforts by the United States and Russia for easing tensions surrounding the situation in Crimea, particularly the referendum there on March 16, have failed. This makes it amply clear that the larger "Ukraine" tangle is inexorably moving towards a more serious conflict than many had anticipated.
The critically important talks between US secretary of state John F. Kerry and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov ended in total frustration with both the ministers accusing each other for the failure of the discussions in London. Mr. Lavrov said that they failed to find common ground while Mr. Kerry warned that Moscow would have to pay a big price if it did not reverse its position on holding the referendum in Crimea, which is a part of Ukraine.
As the two sides could not come to any understanding on the escalating Ukrainian crisis, with Crimea becoming the eye of the storm at the moment, fears have mounted over the cold-war style tensions further engulfing the globe in the coming days, unless the growing signs of hostilities are effectively checked.
But no sign of a thaw is yet seen about the conflict, stemming from the fall of the pro-Russian government in Ukraine on February 22 and a West-supported authority is now in place at the helm of power in Kiev.
The developments that followed the change of guards in Ukraine, have led to a very uneasy situation, bringing Russia almost on the head-on-collision with the West, particularly the European Union (EU) and the United States.
Moscow, having suffered a big setback in the latest developments in Ukraine -- a former Soviet Union republic -- sought to turn the table on the West by seeking to "annex" Crimea, an autonomous region under Ukraine, which has a large ethnic Russian-speaking population. The latter are supporters of the authorities in Kremlin in the current tussle over Ukraine.
With the fall of the Kiev government, Crimea showed defiance to the new pro-West authority in the federal government and sided with Moscow. This came as a big problem for the new government of Ukraine and also for the West, which said Moscow was wrong by encouraging Crimea to defy the authorities of the Kiev government.
But Russia did not stop there and the Crimea parliament was understandably encouraged by Moscow to seek a referendum in Crimea whether the region would remain with Ukraine or join the Russian federation.
It goes without saying that the overwhelming majority of the people in Crimea would opt for joining Russia and this is being described by the West as an effective annexation of the region by Moscow. The US president, Barack Obama, and other European leaders have called the Russian stance and the referendum in Crimea asÂ Â serious violations of the international law. But Russia is hardly bothered by such reactions and is working on its own agenda. Evidently, Moscow is concerned with its political and military interest which it considers as important, following the changes in Ukraine
As the holding of the referendum in Crimea now looks to be a stark reality, things have become more complicated over the problem in Ukraine. Reports that Russian troops are engaged in a drill in Ukraine's eastern borders, have escalated the tensions in the region.
The West and the Russia are engaged in aÂ conflict that is fraught with much wider dangers and it appears that the Ukrainian crisis would eventually go much beyond its perimeters or even the region since all big powers are involved there with their big stakes.
(E-mail: zaglulbss@yahoo.com)