Neither Putin nor Trump respects the UN. Still, as they prepare to “chat” on the phone today about carving up Ukraine, here’s a reminder of what the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on the third anniversary of Russia’s barbaric, full-scale, invasion of Ukraine:
“On this tragic occasion, I reaffirm the urgent need for a just, sustainable and comprehensive peace – one that fully upholds Ukraine’s sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders, in accordance with the UN Charter, international law and resolutions of the General Assembly.”
History is already recording the complicity of these two heads of member states of the UN Security Council and their disdain for, and destruction of, the international order.
As things stand, Trump risks being remembered not only as a modern-day Neville Chamberlain, who in 1938 naively declared that he had secured “peace in our time” by agreeing to Hitler’s dismemberment of Czechoslovakia, but also as a partner in replicating the infamous Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact of 1939, by which Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union carved up Eastern Europe between them.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s and not necessarily those of Kyiv Post.