Another what-if option that I wish had been discussed here: What if the EU had placed a peacekeeping force in white uniforms in Ukraine? (in theory a week ago, but that might just have prompted an even faster Russian attack, so it probably needed to have been done last year).
I realize that many EU countries are also NATO countries. But still, if it was done under an EU banner, and the soldiers were not there to fight Russians, but to act as a neutral peacekeeping force. I know many of us did not expect Putin to be crazy enough to launch a full scale invasion, but is he also crazy enough that he would have attacked an EU peacekeeping force?
I realize that it's way too late to do anything about this - going in now would be seen as an attack - but still, knowing what we know now, what would have been the best possible way to try to prevent this? It might also inform what to do later, if after the dust has settled, there is still a democratic Ukraine to help.
The EU doesn't have a military or any mandate to put one together under an EU flag. Probably it will happen eventually, but previous attempts to establish one have been rebuffed by the citizens of smaller countries with a policy of neutrality, who still get a veto on questions like this.
Maybe there could have been a combined French/German (or whatever EU countries you'd like...I imagine there'd be no shortage of volunteers in the Baltic) peacekeeping force.
I mean, a UN peacekeeping force would have worked too. A neutral banner instead of NATO, that Putin sees as a direct threat. We don't even need the force to be able to actually fight off a Russian invasion, we just need them to be there to force Russia to declare war on everyone in order to be able invade.
Thought this too. And I believe that without the recent years dissolution of EU (brexit, nationalist tensions) there may have been a EU protection force in place to do what you described. But countries are slow (covid didn't help) and unprepared. And actually I hold the belief that what is gonna happen from EU this week will influence this episode a lot. No clear answer => decades of tensions and problems, clear answer => shutting the lid on the fire.
Send in people, give them Ukrainian passports, deny everything. Not only Russia can perform false flag operations, deny responsibility and not get flak.
(The only problem being sidestepped above is that when there is a madman with nukes there is no semblance of fairness and all bets are off.)
What should they peacekeep? The Russians are not butchering civilians, their goal is to demilitarize the country and replace the government. There will be no attack on peaceful civilians, hopefully. Civil unrest will be solved the way how Russia is solving that. But that could NEVER be prevented by peacekeepers.
Imagine China would send peacekeepers to Canada to peacekeep the policing against the truckers.
And how would peacekeeping ground troops help exactly against very sad and bad such civilian accidents? The Russians are not fucking dumb to kill civilians in purpose.
The causalities you mention are happening due to accidents or sad and bad collateral damage.
I realize that many EU countries are also NATO countries. But still, if it was done under an EU banner, and the soldiers were not there to fight Russians, but to act as a neutral peacekeeping force. I know many of us did not expect Putin to be crazy enough to launch a full scale invasion, but is he also crazy enough that he would have attacked an EU peacekeeping force?
I realize that it's way too late to do anything about this - going in now would be seen as an attack - but still, knowing what we know now, what would have been the best possible way to try to prevent this? It might also inform what to do later, if after the dust has settled, there is still a democratic Ukraine to help.