The war in Ukraine is reaching a crisis point. It is becoming accepted that without substantial outside help, Ukraine cannot withstand the forces of its much larger neighbor. Now that neighbor is enlisting troops from North Korea. If Ukraine begins to accept troops from other countries in large enough numbers to make a difference, we are on the verge of another world war.
It is time for Ukraine to admit
that it cannot continue to resist militarily. Now is the time for Ukraine to
move to a nonviolent strategy of opposing occupation. Ukraine is where Denmark
was when, at the beginning of World War II, it accepted the fact that it could
not withstand German power and adopted a nonviolent resistance strategy.
Nonviolence can only be effective
if it has the support of the vast majority of a population. Ukraine is in that
situation. Its people are weary of having their infrastructure systematically
destroyed and their manpower systematically killed off. Yet they do not want
themselves to be defined as subjects of a legally accepted occupying power.
The Ukrainian government should
announce that it is ceasing violent resistance to occupation, and that it
opposes Russian occupation as legally and morally unacceptable. It should at
the same time announce that it welcomes soldiers in the occupying power to
become citizens of Ukraine, ceasing their violent attack. Both Russian and
North Korean soldiers, who are now cannon fodder, might welcome the invitation
to join a state that recognizes freedom and equal citizenship. Former soldiers
will be welcomed into Ukrainian society, offering the world an example of how a
multicultural society can grow from an armed conflict.
Ukraine has the high moral ground.
All the nations now supporting it will welcome a strategy that relieves them
from the danger of armed conflict with Russia. Russia will be forced into an
even lower moral ground than where it already stands, except that it will now
be isolated even more.
The more troops Mr.Putin pours into
Ukraine, the more new citizens Ukraine will gain and Russia lose.
If there was ever a situation where
nonviolence seems a promising strategy, it is today in the Ukraine conflict
with Russia.
