(This is meant as a summary of important points to keep in mind these days especially given the Munich Security Conference is next week. Some of these I have written of on this site or elsewhere. I am of the belief Putin must be removed, Russia disarmed and removed from the Security Council, and the society re-ordered. Zelensky’s peace plan is Putin’s best deal. He better take it next week.)
There is talk about a peace proposal to end the war in Ukraine coming from President Trump next week at the Munich Security Conference. While it is too early to tell what those terms are, now is a good time to discuss what they should be.
The United Nations (UN) is based on something called the Four Pillars. These are to avoid war and promote peace and security, recognize and defend fundamental human rights, promote the rule of law, and advance social progress and better living standards or development.1 Pope Pius XII, and many Catholics of his day, were in large measure pleased with the United Nations (UN).6 Despite propaganda to the contrary, the UN has admirably fulfilled these missions. The peoples of the world benefit, and have benefitted, from this international order, as does the United States. All of this is now under attack by Vladimir Putin’s Russia and others.
Professor Michael N. Schmitt is a Professor of Public International Law at the University of Reading and a Strauss Center Distinguished Scholar and Visiting professor of Law at the University of Texas amongst his other distinguished academic honors. Professor Schmitt explained why Putin’s invasion was illegal under international law and illegal under the provisions of the United Nations Charter.2
While Putin claimed individual self defense and collective self defense as justification for the invasion, the facts simply do not support the claim. Self-defense and collective defense require an actual attack, or an imminent attack. There is no evidence that Ukraine, NATO or the United States were attacking Russia or were massing their forces for an attack. Indeed, there were, and are, no plans for such an attack.
Putin repeatedly expressed the desire to erase Ukraine, a sovereign country and which, like Russia’s predecessor, the USSR, is a founding Member State of the United Nations. Sovereignty of Member States is recognized by the UN Charter, and all Member States are required to recognize the sovereignty of other Member States. Since the United Nations Charter is a treaty, violation of its terms is an immoral act. Putin’s actions – being illegal – are also immoral.
The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) repeatedly condemned Putin’s invasion, ordered Russia to vacate Ukraine (including Crimea), and directed Russian violations of human rights cease. These condemnations, demands and directives since the start of the February, 2022 invasion are found in UNGA Emergency Session (ES) Resolutions ES 11/1, 11/2/, 11/3, 11/4, and 11/5, and earlier versions dating back to the illegal Russian occupation of Crimea can be found at UNGA Res. 72/190, 73/263, 74/168, 76/179, 77/229, 78/221 as well as 73/194, 74/17, 75/29 and 76/70.3
The invasion is causing countless and untold suffering, to include over 6.5 million displaced, and more than 1 million killed or wounded as a result of the fighting. Putin and officials in his government are charged with genocide and crimes against humanity, the first time a leader of a permanent member of UN Security Council has been so charged.
This is an egregious situation. Members of the Security Council have unique responsibilities in keeping the peace. They are the “big brothers” who are supposed to lead by example by avoiding aggression while working to settle disputes around the world. But that is not the situation with Putin’s Russia. Russia is, and has been, engaged in aggression against its neighbors – Chechnya, Georgia, Ukraine — for many years. The Helsinki Commission explains how Russia is now engaged spreading lies, and errors, around the world threatening unity, while engaging in sabotage and espionage. Putin seeks to substitute the rule of force for the rule of law which equates to the negation of reason and love.
Putin is attacking the world order so as to overthrow it4 and to install rule by dictators for the benefit of the oligarchs. This means that the war in Ukraine is really between Russia and the community of nations. Ukraine represents and is fighting for right order.
President Volodomyr Zelensky of Ukraine in setting forth his demands for peace advanced the position of the community of nations as contained in UNGA Res. ES 11/6. This includes, in summary form, “radiation and nuclear safety; food security; energy security; release of all prisoners and deported person; implementation of the UN Charter and restoration of Ukraine’ territorial integrity and the world order; withdrawal of Russian troops and cessation of hostilities; restoration of justice; countering ecocide; preventing escalation; and finally – confirmation at the end of the war.”5 In other words, along with other requirements, Russia must vacate all of Ukraine.
Putin, in his latest demands from June, 2024, seeks the annihilation of Ukraine as a sovereign state. It may keep its independence, but it would lose the ability to defend itself and govern itself while Russia would get to keep the lands it seized illegally, violently and in contravention of international law and the demands of the UNGA. This threatens peace and stability around the world as well as Catholic Social Teaching opening the way to more suffering. Putin and Russia represent devolution.
The community of nations is more than an interested party in this war given the aid given to Ukraine and the almost universal condemnation of Russia’s actions in the UNGA debates during the final week of September. The UN must therefore be involved in restoring and maintaining right order as that is the way of bringing peace. Right order requires justice and reaffirming the Four Pillars. President Zelensky’s formulation for peace fulfills these requirements. We – and all the peoples of the world — must fully support his peace proposal. It is the best that Putin can do.
But can Putin be trusted with an agreement? After all, he violated the UN Charter, the Helsinki Accords, the Budapest Memorandum and a lot of other treaties. He is motivated by a Russian imperialism, or supernationalism, that threatens further conflicts down the line.
There is a good case to be made that Putin must be removed, the Russian government dissolved, Russia disarmed or at least its nuclear capability if such even exists, be decommissioned, and Russia removed from the Security Council. Imperialism, or supernationalism, drives the Russian actions as we have seen since at least 1996. Peace in Ukraine may not — probably will not — end the Russian threat so Russia must be subdued.
A concern that existed from the inception of the United Nations has surfaced. It is that the Security Council’s five permanent members, having veto power, could scuttle any attempt to bring peace. The community of nations devised a way around this in November, 1950 during the Korean War when Russia was likely to veto any attempt to end North Korean aggression. What developed was the Uniting for Peace initiative, or UNGA 377(V), that permits the General Assembly to authorize the use of force to drive out aggressors, or peacekeepers to oversee a truce. This initiative was used to authorize a UN mission to Korea to fight the North Korean and Chinese aggressors. It was used again in November, 1956 to resolve the Suez Canal crisis by emplacement of a UN peacekeeping force called UNEF which facilitated the withdrawal of the French, British, and Israeli forces from the Sinai and the Suez Canal.
Similar options are available today. The permanent members of the Security Council not likely to veto any action to bring peace to Ukraine – the US, the UK, and France – could now bring a motion in the General Assembly to employ an international mission to either enforce a truce, or make sure Russia stops fighting, or even to repel the Russian invaders and effect regime change in Moscow. Solidarity is necessary now to reach a just and proper resolution for the benefits of all the peoples of the world.
The common good of the community of nations is at stake, and that affects each one of us. Unity, law, and reason as a way to order human affairs for a better life free of the threat of war hinges on a decisive, effective movement by the international community. Hopefully, the leadership of the United States, France and the United Kingdom can find the courage to defend the international common good and all the peoples of the world.
1 “The Four Pillars of the United Nations,” United Nations, found at https://www.un.org/en/model-united-nations/4-pillars-united-nations.
2 Michael N. Schmitt, “Russia’s `Special Military Operation’ and the (Claimed) Right of Self-Defense,” February 28, 2022, Lieber Institute West Point.
3 See, Oleksiy Kresin, The UN General Assembly Resolutions (Verlag, Stuttgart, 2024).
4 See, Gideon Rachman, “How America First Will Transform the World in 2025,” December 27, 2024, Financial Times; David Wemhoff, “The Ideological and Informational Warfare Waged by Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping Against America and the World,” July 8, 2024, The American Proposition.
5 President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, “Ukraine has always been a leader in peacemaking efforts; if Russia wants to end this war, let it prove it with actions – speech by the President of Ukraine at the G20 Summit,” 15 November 2022, wwwpresident.gov.us as accessed December 25, 2024.
6. H.E. Archbishop Gabriele Caccia, “Archbishop Caccia Addresses `The United Nations at 75: Catholic Perspectives’,” October 22, 2020, Permanent Observer Mission of the Holy See to the United Nations as accessed at https://holyseemission.org/contents//statements/5f920c719bf29.php on December 31, 2024. The presentation states: These Four Pillars or areas were, and remain, “to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war”; “to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women”; “to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom”; and “to establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained.” The UN, created largely through the initiative and efforts of the United States and the United Kingdom after World War II, is the best manifestation in recent times of a community of nations.