(FreedomBeacon.com)- In an op-ed at Foreign Policy, writer Suzanne Nossel discusses the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the limits of diplomacy.
Nossel writes that despite everything the Biden administration and Western diplomats did to avert Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, they were unable to stop it.
She explains that the “logic of international security dictates” that diplomatic efforts, however fervent they might be, “don’t always prevail.” The war in Ukraine, Nossel writes, serves as a reminder of both diplomacy’s “extraordinary potential” and “its inescapable limitations.”
On Wednesday, Ukrainian presidential advisor Mykhailo Podolyak announced that a Ukrainian delegation was departing for Belarus for a second round of talks with Russia to begin Thursday morning.
The first round of talks was held on Monday near the Pripyat River near the Belarusian border with Ukraine.
After a week of fighting that has killed over 2,000 civilians and destroyed schools, hospitals, and residential neighborhoods, Russia has still failed to achieve its primary objective of overthrowing Ukraine’s government.
Meanwhile, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, reported Wednesday that, in an unprecedented mass-exodus, one million people have already fled Ukraine since Russia’s invasion began a week ago. That amounts to over 2 percent of Ukraine’s total population.
UNHCR is estimating that as many as 4 million Ukrainians could eventually flee the country and warned that this estimate is likely to be revised upward.
In the early stages of the refugee crisis in Syria, it took about three months for one million people to flee. The departure of one million Ukrainians in just one week is staggering.
UNHCR spokesperson Shabia Mantoo said on Wednesday that, at this rate, the outflow of refugees from Ukraine is poised to make this “the biggest refugee crisis” of the century.
With diplomacy long over, it was reported on Wednesday that about 3,800 additional US troops from the 1st Armored Brigade of the Army’s 3rd Infantry Division based out of Fort Stewart, Georgia have been ordered to deploy to Europe to bolster US forces.
US troops are to train alongside NATO forces in what is described as a display of force aimed at deterring further Russian aggression.
