The world will face upheaval in conflicts if Russia triumphs over Ukraine, stated political scientist and former White House expert on Russia, Fiona Hill, in an interview with Politico.
“We’ll be at each others’ throats. There’ll be no way in which this is going to turn out well. There’ll be a lot of frustration on the part of people who thought that this was the easier option when we reel from crisis to crisis. There’ll also be the shame, frankly, and the disgrace of having let the Ukrainians down. I think it would create a firestorm of recrimination. And it will also embolden so many other actors to take their own steps,” Hill said.
In the event of Russia’s victory, the world will face a nuclear crisis. Japan, South Korea, and even NATO countries, currently relying on the protection of U.S. nuclear weapons, will begin to increase their armaments. Trust and confidence in American support will significantly diminish.
Countries will witness the outcome for Ukraine, which decided to relinquish all nuclear weapons in exchange for US security guarantees.
“We pushed Ukraine to give up the nuclear weapons that it had inherited from the Soviet Union in the early 1990s. And we gave assurances along with the United Kingdom, that Ukraine would not end up in the situation that it is in now,” the expert said.
Hill is convinced the best scenario for the development of events for the whole world is the victory of Ukraine. “So the best possible outcome here, beyond Ukraine being able to prevail on the battlefield, is a negotiated settlement that is in Ukraine’s favor, that leads to commitments to its security and reconstruction, and leads to some soul searching in Russia. That’s not going to happen under these current circumstances. The only way that that happens is when Russia believes that everybody else has the fortitude and staying power for this conflict. And right now, that’s not what we’re displaying at all. Actually, we’re looking pretty pathetic, I can’t think of any other way to describe it. And for Putin, this is just such a gift. This is such a gift,” Hill concluded.
Read the full interview with Fiona Hill at the following link.
Cover: Al Drago/Bloomberg
