Example letter I wrote to the ambassador of Ukraine

 Her Excellency

Mrs. Oksana Markarova

The Ambassador of Ukraine

Madam Ambassador, and Friends in Ukraine,

I visited Ukraine for a week in the summer of 1992, staying with some friends in Kyiv.  I came into Ukraine with a Soviet visa, and needed to get a Ukrainian visa at the airport seven days later when I left, so I am one of the first persons to have visited your country when you had set up an independent diplomatic system. 

I have been writing letters (many emails) to my government elected representatives and President Biden urging them to totally cut off Russia, and give Ukraine everything you ask for. I attended a demonstration we had here in Springfield, Illinois this weekend, and encouraged my students to join in the demonstration to show support for peace.

I am reading Ukrainian English-Language news sources, and I see that Russia has promised a cease-fire and a troop withdrawal if Ukraine will do three things:

1) "put down arms". (I assume this means join in the cease fire and stop violent defense while the Russian side observes the cease fire and withdraws)

2) Recognize that Crimea is part of Russia and some part of eastern Ukraine (Donetsk and Luhansk, or just the occupied portions of Donetsk and Luhansk, I wonder?) are independent states

3) agree not to become a part of any bloc (don't join NATO).

For the sake of peace, and ending this conflict, I urge your nation to accept some of that proposal and make a public counter-offer.

You can give Crimea to Russia, on the condition that neutral third parties administer a referendum that is fair, in which a majority of residents in Crimea agree that they prefer union with Russia to independent status or return to Ukraine. The last referendum there was not fair and free.  You might also ask for a condition that in the event the citizens residing in Crimea elect to become part of Russia, that area shall be administered as a special zone of Russia where Citizens of Ukraine would have rights to live and visit without visas. 

You can suggest a similar referendum with neutral third parties administering the election in Donetsk and Luhansk, with the election held for Donetsk and Luhansk areas controlled by Ukraine as of February 22, and those areas controlled by Russia and its proxies (in the break-away areas) on that date.  Agree to abide by the referendum of those areas. 

I think such an agreement would be similar to the agreement of 1940 between Finland and the Soviet Union (the Moscow Treaty).  Some of Ukraine (Crimea) might be transferred to Russia or to an independent status. Ukraine obviously never had any intention of invading Russia, so you can promise never to invade Russia or assist any other power that invades Russia. 

As for "demilitarization" you can agree to no nuclear weapons being stationed in your country. You are too civilized to use those if you had them anyway.

As for not joining NATO: you can make this conditional.  For the next 20 years, Ukraine will not seek admission to the NATO alliance, but this must be accompanied by a good faith effort on the part of Russia to encourage the creation of a new system of global international security in which no nation can invade another nation with an internationally recognized legitimate government. The treaty would mandate that states surrender national sovereignty in the areas of: 1) being able to launch invasions of other countries; and 2) being able to continue trade or investment in any country that violates the first principle (of not invading other countries). In other words, use this treaty as an opportunity to point out that the UN Security Council and General Assembly have been unable to prevent wars of invasion, and that a new system should supplement the existing order so that states surrender to a higher international authority their ability to invade other states, or trade with states that face a global boycott as a result of their invasion of other states.  The failure of imagination in Western and Russian diplomats to see that the world needs something new to protect us all from war must be corrected, and now, with Ukraine having the sympathy and attention of nearly all the world, your nation can propose this bold principle. 

Publicize your willingness to agree to these points.  If Russia rejects them, they will sink even deeper into the bad opinion of the rest of the planet. Russian soldiers subsequently ordered to attack Ukraine will learn that you have offered all the major conditions Russia demanded, or offered fair compromises.  If Russia accepts them, nothing really changes for you, anyway.  There was no realistic way you would get back Crimea. The NATO alliance was not going to bring you into the alliance in the next several years. The outcome in the Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts will be decided by the residents of those areas. In all cases, because the peace treaty allows voting to determine the will of the people in those areas, Ukrainians cannot say they have been "surrendered" to Russia; rather, their future is to be determined by persons who lived there as of early February in 2022.

I urge your nation to negotiate peace terms quickly, so that this ruinous and terrible war can be concluded.  Make your offers public.  Let the world see how Russia justifies its aggression after you have made such offers for peace.  Why should Ukrainians die to hold on to those regions that did not feel loyalty to Ukraine anyway?  Land is just dirt, and upon our death and ascension to what comes after death, we will see how worthless is "territory" compared to the preciousness of life. All lands that were securely controlled by Ukraine before the invasion will remain part of Ukraine (assuming the unoccupied areas of Luhansk and Donetsk choose to remain with Ukraine).  

I have friends in Ukraine now, some fighting for Ukraine, and some hiding in basements and frightened by the Russian aggression. Even a non-Ukrainian friend has gone to join your armed forces in defense of your freedom.  I love your country, and will continue to support it.  One way to express my love for Ukraine is to urge you to settle the war peacefully as quickly as possible under terms that, while unfair and forced upon you, would give the war criminal Putin an "exit ramp" to end the war and withdraw his murderous troops.  They will go back to Russia alive, and tell the truth of what they have seen.  In the long run, perhaps Russia will follow Ukraine's example, and give up tyranny and dictatorship, and develop toward democracy. Putin cannot live forever.

 - Eric Hadley-Ives, MSW, PhD

   Associate Professor of Social Work at the University of Illinois, Springfield