Three lessons from Korea are important for Ukraine: to find funds for reconstruction as quickly as possible, to achieve the creation of real and long-term security guarantees, and to be ready to negotiate on the principle of “land in exchange for peace.” This was stated by the former commander-in-chief of NATO armed forces in Europe, retired Admiral James Stavridis.
Today, Stavridis wondered in a column for Bloomberg what “Western democracies can do to improve outcomes for our current partner, Ukraine, just as we did for South Korea 70 years ago.” He extracted and presented to the public several lessons from South Korea for rebuilding Ukraine.
“Over the past week, I spent several days in Seoul… This visit was reminiscent of the end of the Korean War and the growing signs that the end of the war in Ukraine may look similar… What Western democracies can do to improve outcomes for our current partner, Ukraine, is how did we do it for South Korea 70 years ago?” – writes the retired admiral.
First of all, he draws attention to the “incredible reconstruction”: high-rise office buildings, beautiful apartments, marble shopping centers …
“This brings us to the first lesson of the Korean War for Ukraine: demand serious assistance from the West in reconstruction. In the first post-war decade, South Korea experienced stagnation. The determination of its people, combined with gradual economic assistance from the West, allowed it to begin to improve living conditions by the end of the 1950s. Then South Korea began to accelerate significantly, both demographically and economically,” notes Stavrilis.
The second critical factor for Ukraine, in his opinion, will be the receipt of iron-clad security guarantees. That means plain and simple NATO membership—similar to what South Korea received as a full U.S. treaty partner in 1953, he writes, noting that Ukraine could be accepted “even with 15% of its territory occupied by Russia.” .
“The third and final lesson from Korea is more difficult for Ukraine to accept: it will likely have to come to terms, at least temporarily, with Moscow’s occupation of Crimea and the land bridge between that peninsula and Russia. In a sense, everyone will hate this outcome. Of course, there will be voices in the West saying: “We cannot give up an inch of territory to Russian aggression.” And the Ukrainians will say: “We will never give up a single square mile of sovereign Ukrainian territory.” But remember that Russian President Vladimir Putin will also hate this outcome – it will mean that he has clearly and completely failed in his goal of conquering all of Ukraine and will be forced to settle for battle-damaged and heavily mined parts of the Southeast, which is hardly a worthy prize “, writes the admiral.
Thus, three lessons from Korea are important for Ukraine: to find funds for reconstruction as quickly as possible, to achieve the creation of real and long-term security guarantees, and to be ready to negotiate on the principle of “land for peace.” This, according to Stavridis, is a realistic scenario; over time it will lead to Independence’s success, although the final decisions must, of course, be made by the Ukrainians themselves.
As reported EADaily, in the West they are increasingly talking about the inevitability of negotiations in the Ukrainian conflict, but Kyiv will have to negotiate on Russia’s terms. This was stated by the head of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs Leonid Slutsky.
The “Korean scenario” will not help the head of the Kyiv regime Vladimir Zelenskynoted the leader of the LDPR.
“The West seems to be hastily changing its rhetoric against the backdrop of the “death throes” of the Kyiv junta led by Zelensky. Even such an irreconcilable American “hawk” as retired admiral and ex-NATO Commander-in-Chief James Stavridis declared with soldierly directness that Kiev would have to agree to the loss of its territories and go for the “Korean option.” And a well-known supporter of the Ukroführer regime, the head of European diplomacy Josep Borrell I generally stopped believing in Ukraine’s victory “on the battlefield” in the “near future.” I would clarify – you shouldn’t count on it in the “distant future,” Slutsky writes in his Telegram channel.
#Korean #scenario #lessons #Admiral #Stavridis #Ukraine #EADaily
2023-11-12 16:59:00
