Lecturer of the Russian Literature Study Program, Faculty of Cultural Sciences Padjadjaran University Supian stated there was a possibility of conflict Russia–Ukraine will end up at the negotiating table. History has proven how Soviet diplomats were able to avoid a nuclear war conflict that almost occurred in 1962.
“There is one motto that Russian-Ukrainian diplomats stick to until now, which is ’10 years of negotiation is better than 1 day of war’. This slogan is a mandatory curriculum for prospective diplomats,” Supian said, quoted from Unpad’s official website, Sunday (27/27/2020). 12).
The motto was born from the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Soviet Union Andrei Gromyko. He managed to become a “hero” who was able to avoid a nuclear war conflict in Cuba through the negotiating table.
Exploring the profile of Andrei, the hero of the Soviet Union, turns out to be interesting. Supian found that Andrei Gromyko was of Ukrainian blood.
This can be seen from his last name which is a Ukrainian surname. Although originally from Ukraine, Andrei grew up in Moscow until his death.
From this history Supian found that Russia and Ukraine are like inseparable siblings. Conflict occurs due to political matters.
“I believe this conflict will end at the negotiating table,” he said.
Supian further said that the Russian military attack on Ukraine since February 24 was a conflict between siblings. This is because the two countries come from the same cultural family, namely the East Slavs.
“It is very unfortunate that there is a brother-sister conflict. This can be suppressed by its own culture,” he said.
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Photo: CNNIndonesia/Asfahan Yahsyi Insert-Infographic-Territory-Ukraine-Russia-Russia- – |
Supian, who has lived for 7 years in Moscow and Voronezh, on the Russia-Ukraine border, said Russia and Ukraine are like Indonesia and Malaysia. Therefore, in terms of social and linguistic character, Russian-Ukrainian are not much different.
From his experience he found many Ukrainian citizens who go to school or work in Russia every day. Two of them are from the provinces of Donestk and Luhansk, regions in Ukraine that were finally recognized by Russia. Every weekend, they go back to Ukraine.
Although allied, culture turned out to be the root trigger of the Russo-Ukrainian war. Supian explained that the ban on the use of the Russian language in Donestk and Luhansk schools triggered the conflict. In fact, Russian is the everyday language used in the two provinces.
Economic factors exacerbate the problem. As a former Soviet Union country, Ukraine’s economy is not as advanced as Russia, which in fact holds the largest share of the assets of the Soviet Union.
Because of this, Ukraine opens up great investment opportunities from outside in order to overcome economic lags.
“Little by little, everyone wants to be like America, and then the Western European invasion of Ukraine also enters,” Supian said.
This alumnus of the Pushkin State RL Institute in Russia said that culturally, it was difficult for the East Slavic family to blend in with the Indo-West German family. There are many visible differences between Slavic culture and Western culture. This then drew strong criticism from Russia.
“So this conflict is purely political. The roots of the Russian and Ukrainian people are very strong, and they are both Orthodox,” Supian said.
The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, said he was willing to have a dialogue with Russia on condition that negotiations were carried out in a location of his choice. Zelensky refused to negotiate in Belarus.
Zelensky rejected negotiations in Belarus because it was the launching pad for Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. He then proposed four locations some of which were Hungary and Turkey.
“Warsaw, Bratislava, Budapest, Istanbul, Baku. We propose those places, and other cities in the country where missiles cannot be launched,” Zelensky was quoted as saying by AFP on Sunday (27/2).
(hyg/gil)
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