At the core of the Ukraine crisis is a puzzle: Why would Russian President Vladimir Putin push Europe to the brink of war to demand the West not do something that it has no plan to do anyway? Russia says NATO, the American-led alliance that has on its hands the biggest European crisis in decades, must never offer membership to Ukraine, which gained independence as the Soviet Union broke apart about 30 years ago. Ukraine has long aspired to join NATO, but the alliance is not about to offer an invitation, due in part to Ukraine’s official corruption, shortcomings in its defense establishment and lack of control over its international borders.
Putin’s demands go beyond the question of Ukraine’s association with NATO, but that link is central to his complaint that the West has pushed him to the limits of his patience by edging closer to Russian borders. He asserts that NATO expansion years ago has enhanced its security at the expense of Russia’s.
Why is Putin worried about Ukraine joining NATO? The stated reason is that a further eastward expansion of NATO would pose a security threat to Russia. Washington and its allies deny this is a valid worry, since no NATO country is threatening to use force against Russia.
Photo: Reuters 照片：路透
More broadly, Putin wants NATO to pull back its existing military presence in Eastern Europe, which includes a regularly rotating series of exercises in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, all former Soviet states.
Putin also opposes NATO’s missile defense presence in Romania, a former Soviet satellite state, and a similar base under development in Poland, saying they could be converted to offensive weapons capable of threatening Russia.
Ukraine has deep historical and cultural ties to Russia, and Putin has repeatedly asserted that Russians and Ukrainians are “one people.” He has said that large chunks of Ukrainian territory are historical parts of Russia that were arbitrarily granted to Ukraine by communist leaders under the Soviet Union.
Photo: AP 照片：美聯社
Putin’s own actions, however, have served to strengthen Ukrainians’ sense of national identity. After Russia seized the Crimean Peninsula and instigated a rebellion in eastern Ukraine in 2014, Ukraine’s desire to align itself with the West and join NATO only grew.
(AP)
烏克蘭危機的核心是這樣一個謎團：對一件西方原本就沒打算要做的事，俄羅斯總統弗拉迪米爾‧普亭為何還要西方別做，且不惜將歐洲推向戰爭邊緣？俄羅斯表示，以美國為首、正面臨幾十年來歐洲最大危機的聯盟北大西洋公約組織，絕不能讓烏克蘭加入。烏克蘭是在約三十年前蘇聯解體時獨立。烏克蘭長久以來一直渴望加入北約，但北約並未邀請烏克蘭加入，部分原因是烏克蘭官員腐敗、國防建設不足，以及對國界缺乏控管。
普亭的要求超出了烏克蘭與北約交往之問題，但這成為他不滿的主要理由，說西方向俄羅斯邊境推進，將他的耐心逼到了極限。普亭斷言，北約多年前的擴張，是以犧牲俄羅斯為代價來鞏固其安全。
普亭為何擔心烏克蘭加入北約？其理由是，北約進一步東擴將對俄羅斯的安全構成威脅。華盛頓及其盟友認為此擔憂並無根據，因為沒有北約國家威脅要對俄羅斯使用武力。
更廣義地說，普亭希望北約將已在東歐部署的兵力撤回，其中包括在立陶宛、拉脫維亞及愛沙尼亞這些前蘇聯國家定期輪流舉行的一系列演習。
普亭還反對北約在前蘇聯衛星國羅馬尼亞部署防禦導彈，以及北約正於波蘭發展的類似基地，說這些設施可轉變為足以威脅俄羅斯的進攻型武器。
烏克蘭與俄羅斯有深厚的歷史及文化淵源，普亭一再聲稱俄羅斯人和烏克蘭人是「同一個民族」。他說，烏克蘭的大部分領土在歷史上是俄羅斯的一部分，是蘇聯的共產黨領導人任意將領土授予烏克蘭。
然而，普亭的所作所為卻強化了烏克蘭人的民族認同感。二○一四年，俄羅斯佔領克里米亞半島，並在烏克蘭東部煽動叛亂後，烏克蘭與西方結盟並加入北約的願望更形強烈。
（台北時報林俐凱編譯）
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