Last year was a year of global conflict that will cost everything, agreed Danas interlocutors on the occasion of the anniversary of the start of the war in Ukraine.
For Sonja Biserko, president of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia, Ukraine showed great courage, and to everyone’s surprise.
“This war strengthened their identity,” he says for Danas.
“Russia is morally discredited and it will take time to recover,” Biserko said. She is of the opinion that with this war, Russia completely cut herself off from the West.
Biserko is not convinced that the war will end soon, although there is a possibility of China’s mediation.
“Their foreign minister gave some hints at the Munich Security Forum, but at the same time there are indications that China would help Russia militarily,” she says, adding that whatever the peace agreement is, it must be fair to Ukraine, i.e. without losing territory. and says that the West’s solidarity towards Ukraine surprised everyone.
According to her, the West’s solidarity towards Ukraine was a surprise to everyone.
“Putin made every effort to corrupt some individuals and movements in the West and counted on the West to act divided. However, it turned out that the Western coalition and solidarity grew stronger over time. The USA contributed to this to a large extent and it has proven to be still the main guarantor of European security,” she notes.
Biserko explains that Russia has been put in a situation where there are speculations about its disintegration by the fact that over a million highly educated experts have left the country, and that this has reduced its potential for reforms.
“The war, on the other hand, changed the security framework of Europe, it united Europeans like never before. Neutral countries seek NATO membership. The birth of a new European security framework is underway,” says Biserko.
Aleksandar Olenik, deputy of the coalition “Together for Vojvodina – Vojvodina citizens”, believes that we can observe Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on two levels – internal and external.
“On the domestic front, there is also a year of disintegration and decay, and the almost unfettered rule of Aleksandar Vučić. The only thing that disturbed his plans was the connection with the outer plane. It is this barbaric aggression of Russia against Ukraine, which simply drastically shortened the time he could sit on two chairs. Nationalism and radicalism are still dominant. That policy “we are neither for the East nor for the West, but for Serbian interests”, is in fact a false policy, the same as during the time of Boris Tadić, unrealistic, impossible and harmful”, says Olenik.
He adds that the only way for Serbia to ensure peace, stability and prosperity is to join NATO, and that a parallel can be drawn with the war of the nineties in our country.
“If it weren’t for the sanctions that led to the loss of oil and modern weapons, Milosevic would still be at war. Milosevic would have the manpower and weapons to wage war in the Balkans for decades. I hope that the situation will be similar in Ukraine. That the sanctions and the fierce response of the West will in some way force the Russians to change their leadership,” he points out.
Olenik fully agrees with Biserko when it comes to the opinion that the Russian invasion of Ukraine united the West.
“The West helps as much as it needs, and it can do much more if needed. Just enough for Ukraine to regain its territories, but without the need to embark on the adventure of attacking Russia on Russian territory,” he says, adding that during the conversation he had with the Minister of Defense of Ukraine, he found out that NATO is sending aid to Kiev within two hours of the moment. when Ukraine requests it.
On the other hand, Dragoljub Anđelković, a political analyst, says that military operations are taking place in the east of Europe, but that economic, propaganda, intelligence, political and all possible other actions are taking place all over the world in the context of the struggle of great powers to establish a new balance of power.
He believes that the war will end when “the big players judge that they have achieved what satisfies” their interests or in the event that one side is totally defeated.
“Since that probably won’t happen, we have to wait for a while for a constellation to be created that will be at least minimally acceptable for all important factors, so that they can agree on starting a true peace process,” he is convinced.
When it comes to the help that Zpada provides to Ukraine, he claims that the West “side by side” is at war with Ukraine and is at war with Russia.
“Ukrainians primarily contribute to the biological component, while Western countries provide the material and ideological component to that conflict. And they are involved in it as much as they think suits them. It’s not about their humanitarian motives, but about geopolitical calculations,” Anđelković claims.
Recently, the question and claims that America is the biggest profiteer of this war have been circulating in the media more and more often.
Anđelković says that out of all the big players, America profited the most from the conflict.
“In the medium term, let alone the long term, China will still benefit the most from it. That country is a real competitor of the USA on a global scale. It has caught up with America economically, but not yet in the military-political sphere as well as in the domain of soft power,” he points out.
Aleksandar Olenik considers the interpretation of America as a profiteer to be malicious, recalling that Putin carried out the aggression and that America was forced to react.
“Whether there is profit or not, I don’t know. I assume that there is, but I am sure that part of that profit or all of the profit and more will be invested in the post-war reconstruction of Ukraine,” he says.
He concludes that it is propaganda when it comes to the West’s collective war against Russia, “because if it was that war, Russia would no longer exist.”