An international relations expert, Dr Henry Ogunjewo, says the responsibility of ending the Russo-Ukraine war lies solely with the international community.
Ogunjewo, a lecturer in the Department of History, University of Lagos expressed this thought in Lagos on Sunday.
He said that the international community should have initiated a round table discussion between the countries long before the conflict escalated to armed hostilities.
According to him, this would have prevented the unnecessary carnage and loss of properties that have been recorded since the war started.
“The international community is going to be the loser at the end of the day because if Russia gets away with this, you can be sure that other states in the system will follow suit.
“It is in the interest of the UN to ensure Russia doesn’t succeed, otherwise you’ll find tomorrow that nations will wake up and annex wherever they deem fit,’’ he said.
The expert noted that with the war being less than two weeks, the humanitarian crisis had started to get out of hands, adding that wars were never about “who is right, but who is left’’.
“In wars, there are no winners. Imagine if we have one month of these hostilities, then neighbouring states will be grossly affected.
“According to the UN refugee agency, since the war commenced, at least 160,000 people have been displaced within Ukraine and more than one million people have fled to neighboring countries, including Hungary, Moldova and Poland,’’ he said.
The expert stressed that the quickest way to resolve the war and avoid more casualties was for Russia to agree to a ceasefire and Ukraine to give an assurance of not joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation.
“It is the beginning of war you know, you never can tell the end. Unintended consequences of young boys dying and civilians being displaced are already coming to play.
“For the global community, an uncontrollable humanitarian crisis is brewing.
“There are already refugee camps in neighbouring nations. People are going to die in those camps because eventually, the facilities on ground will not effectively take care of all refugees,” he added.
Ogunjewo, however, stressed that no sanction was going to deter President Vladimir Putin.
He said Putin appeard to have remained undeterred in spite of the massive sanctions that had been imposed on Russia by some members of the international community.
“The Russian president does not care about the casualties or the international community. Sanctions mounted have affected his assets but he is still not deterred.
“It is time the European Union, NATO, and the UN took strategic steps to prevent Putin from overrunning the whole of Ukraine,” he said.
-NAN
