Breathe
By Aribel Contreras
Three years ago today, what was so much feared happened: Russia invaded Ukraine. On the one hand, Putin is a character who longs to make Russia what the Russian Empire once was, so he has built neo-nationalist narratives at the expense of destroying international security and justifying his "special operation". Undoubtedly, he is a dictator who has been in power (directly and indirectly) for 25 years and has openly and blatantly violated international law. The large number of sanctions imposed by the West have prompted him to seek substitute international buyers of energy, grains and metals. Likewise, it has created new alliances or strengthened pre-existing ones with governments that have declared themselves 'neutral' because it is better to wash its hands than to dirty them by defending the UN Charter.
On the other hand, Trump has been holding the key -for the second time- that opens the Oval Office of the White House for five weeks and it would seem that he has been in Russia as long as Putin, given all the political tsunamis he has caused. His neo-imperialist vision is so similar to Putin's that they look more and more alike. The U.S. president speaks of returning to the country's "golden era". It seems that this is his ideological basis for wanting to: (i) Buy Greenland, (ii) Make Canada the 51st state, (iii) Control the Panama Canal again, (iv) Impose his own agenda over the global agenda, (v) Move away from Europe, (vi) Move closer to Russia, (vii) Support right-wing and ultra-right parties and governments to expand his MAGA project, (viii) Use neo-protectionism where tariffs are the negotiating weapon for political issues, and (ix) Move the world chessboard with his own rules.
When he talked about resolving the war in Ukraine during the campaign, he never mentioned that he would use as a strategy to disregard the country and trample on its dignity. We never imagined that he would accuse Zelensky of 'provoking' the enemy and labeling him as a dictator. When it is obvious that, because of martial law (being at war), elections cannot be held. Ukraine has lived for 11 years being a neighbor of the enemy, but now everything seems to have two adversaries: Putin and Trump. The first as an invader and aggressor, and the second (transatlantic) as a neo-colonialist.
Yes, it seems that we are in times of neo-colonialism, since he not only does not include the Ukrainians in the negotiations nor Europe, but also feels entitled to divide 20% of the territory to Russia and the other 80% to dispose of its critical minerals and rare earths. This is not up for discussion for him, nor is Ukraine's desire to join NATO. But neither does it give guarantees for its security, since it has refused to place US or NATO troops. All the above leads Ukraine to be in a labyrinth with no way out: continue with the war with human losses, ecocide and destruction of infrastructure or sign a "peace contract in exchange for its natural resources and indebted for years".
