A couple of days ago the Parliament of Ukraine adopted resolution on declaring Russia the state-aggressor and the law that speeds up the process of declaring an organization, foreign and domestic, as a terrorist one. Ukraine wants to force the West and international organizations to acknowledge the fact of war with Russia – writes Agnieszka Piasecka in her column for VoxUkraine.org. But adoption of such a declaration on the international level is unlikely: first, Ukraine calls for sanctions but does not fully implement them itself, second, United Nations Charter makes enforcement almost impossible.
On 27th January Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine has adopted resolution on declaring Russia the state-agressor and the law that speeds up the process of declaring an organization, foreign and domestic, as a terrorist one.
Ukraine kept appealing to the West for declaring DNR and LNR terrorist organizations, but has not done much itself. Common sense tells: if you want others to do something, do it yourself first. Once it is done, Ukraine could follow time consuming and ineffective procedure in order to put DNR and LNR on one of the lists of the terrorist organizations led by EU or USA.
As to the declaring Russia as a state aggressor, this is more of an international PR effort and a very desperate one. But it also adresses the current moods of the society, that is aware of the bigger and bigger losses of lives and territory in the East and calls for decisive reaction.
The purpose of declaring Russia a state aggressor is to force the West and international organizations to ackknowledge the fact of war and stop Russian argument that it is only internal conflict in Ukraine, but the chances of success are poor. Before any similar declaration on international level is adopted there needs to be quorum. Unofficial rule of international relations says that before any document or a statement is adopted by any body like the EU or United Nations there are long miles to be walked in the corridors and lots of people to be convinced first.
The suggested exclusion of Russia from the Security Council of the United Nations would be a historic precedence that never happened before. If this happens I would say Ukraine is a genius of negotiations.
The modern law of armed conflict does not require declaration of war. The law applies if facts prove that hostilities are sufficiently prolonged. Over the years, Russia used its veto power in the Security Council of the United Nations 116 times and paralysed effective reaction to plenty of emerging conflicts that could have been stopped on time, recently blocking decisions on Syria and situation in Donbass.
Declaring Russia a state – agressor is a first step on the political path to ban its veto power in the UN Security Council. But it is almost impossible. According to the Article 108 of the UN Charter any change to its provisions (including withdrawing the veto power from the member of the Security Council) requires majority of ⅔ members of the Genneral Assembly and resolution of any 9 members of the Security Council and later ratification of ⅔ of the member states, including permanent members of the Security Council.
This calls for a reform of the system of international security within the United Nations as it is ineffective.
But, even if this could succeed, it is not clear if Ukraine behaves like a state with the serious military conflict with another state.
Julia Tymoshenko called for punishment of those guilty of crimes. But to bring them to international justice system Ukraine needs to ratify the Rome Statute. Even though MPs consider the ratification, it has not happened yet.
Ukraine calls for sanctions but does not fully implement them itself.
Ukraine calls internationally for bulletproof vests and other means of protection, but the stocks of it lay in the magazines but there is no effective and quick mechanizm of dispatching and coordination of delivery to the right units in need.
Why the Ukrainian control on the blockpost limits only to superficial review of documents with no real detailed luggage control on the bus?
Between Russian and Ukrainian businessmen there is trade as usual, like nothing happened, not to mention weird trades on the frontline, to cite general Bondar: “We stop negotiating the corridor to supply new men to the frontline”. Well, you can negotiate ceasefire to collect dead or wounded, or a POW exchange, but delivery of new men to the frontline through the lines of the enemy?
Declaring a full-scale war in this situation will do more harm than good. Ukraine can prevail in this conflict without it. All there is needed is a will.
Attention
The author doesn`t work for, consult to, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have no relevant affiliations
