Julie Jung
Burchett 1
21 October 2014
The “Switzerland” Resolution - Research Paper The Ukraine-Russia conflict began with a power struggle, as most conflicts do. On February 21, 2014, former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych fled Kiev, leaving the country leader-less. This led to an interim government led by Oleksandr Turchynov, but this government was soon refused by the Russian government. Vladimir Putin, President of Russia, stated that Ukraine basically performed a coup d’etat and ultimately, illegitimately impeached Yanukovych. In order to prevent further mis-conduct, Putin has been working treaties to officially declare the land of Crimea and Sevastopol as Russia’s territory; Putin took specific interest in this portion of Ukraine because these areas were mainly populated by Russians. In order to further these treaties, pro-Russian forces have been gradually taking over Crimea. Ukraine, along side the United States and Europe, declared this as a violation against Ukraine’s laws and constitution. This power and territory conflict thus led to the deaths of 3,660 people since mid-April of 2014. Although the United States is not physically involved in the crisis, it has formally stated that they will support Ukraine in its endeavors in getting Crimea and Sevastopol back under the Ukrainian government’s control. However, this is a risky and dangerous stance to take, especially considering America’s current and past positions in issues such as these. Therefore, the United States must avoid any relationship to either Russia or Ukraine during this conflict because the peace agreements made between the two countries are unreliable, it could lead to a repeat of the Iraq-Iran conflict, and the United States cannot afford to be involved in international conflicts at this time. The “Switzerland” Resolution will explain how even though the two countries have tried to make amends, the attempts have failed. The United States made a formal statement on September 12, 2014 about how the country would prepare further coordinated sanctions against Russia if a solution was not found soon. This has led to Russia and Ukraine on agreeing on a temporary cease-fire. However, as stated by ABC News, the cease-fire that was declared earlier this October has been violated by both sides of the conflict (Leonard, “Ukraine Sees Fewer Russian Troops in Conflict Zone”). Even when the United States threatened to further involve itself into Russia’s business, the effort was futile in the end because both Ukraine and Russia failed to follow a temporary cease-fire. In more specific news, “intense fighting has continued for control of Donetsk’s airport, which is the final outpost of Ukraine’s military near the rebel stronghold city,” as said by the Washington Post (“Russia’s Putin, Ukraine’s Poroshenko End Summit with No Breakthrough on Conflict”). It has been reported that at this specific airport, there have been a total of nine deaths and 27 injuries; the attack that caused these casualties occurred after the cease-fire was announced. Again, the attempts at resolving and finding peace was futile in the end and only led to even more unnecessary casualties. Lastly, even though a cease-fire was announced, Putin has not withdrawn his troops from Ukraine. For almost a month now, “Russia had several thousand combat troops and hundreds of tanks and armored vehicles in eastern Ukraine supporting pro-Russian separatists fighting the Ukrainian army,” as said by NATO (The Sydney Morning Herald). This shows that although a truce was announced, both parties were unwilling to set aside differences for the greater good of finding a solution in a peaceful manner. These instances of inconsistent and unreliable “peace” trades are only harmful to the United States; America cannot hope or linger on the sole idea of a truce when there is no sign of a truce any time soon. Additionally, the United States must refrain from any relation to this conflict in order to prevent