OPINION:
In the catacombs of the steel giant Azovstal destroyed by the Russian army in the city of Mariupol, there are at least a thousand children, women and elderly. For almost two months now, they have been unable to get out of there, so as not to fall under the shelling of Russian troops. All this time they have not seen daylight and they have almost no food and water.
Several days ago, Russian President Vladimir Putin, desperate to take this part of the city by storm, gave the order to blockade it so that, as he said, not a single fly could fly out of there. That is, he sentenced the people there to death by starvation. Moreover, he gave this order on television, so that we could see it, and without having responded to it, in fact, become accomplices in this terrible crime.
But we can respond to this and prevent these people from dying such a terrible death. America and other NATO countries can launch an immediate airlift to this territory of humanitarian aid, food, water, medicines — everything that is necessary for the survival of these people.
A precedent for this arose as early as 1948, when the Soviets decided to blockade West Berlin, which was entirely within the zone of their occupation. People in the city, as well as now in Mariupol, were doomed to starvation. But America and Britain did not allow this. For 11 months, their planes brought to the city everything necessary for its survival. And they had to fly over the territory occupied by Soviet troops. And the Soviet army victorious and overconfident after its victory over Nazi Germany, was much stronger in all respects than the current Russian army.
Yet, they did not dare to touch the American planes, which regularly delivered aid to the Berliners until, in the end, the Soviets had to retreat and lift the blockade. The same can happen in Mariupol. It is almost certain that the Russian army will not dare to touch any American plane or helicopter. And if God forbid at least one of them is shot down, then NATO forces within a few days will be able to destroy all Russian aviation and air defense on the territory of Ukraine.
And there are plenty of precedents for that, too. Shooting down planes on the territory of another country when the Soviet Union or Russia attacked them was never considered an act of war between East and West and did not entail any further consequences. That’s how it was in Korea. That’s how it was in Vietnam. This happened quite recently in Syria when Turkey shot down a Russian jet and nothing followed. By refusing to defend the Ukrainian sky, we voluntarily renounced the rights recognized for us for decades, primarily by the same Russia.
This refusal is explained by the fear of an escalation of the conflict. But the effect of our inaction is just the opposite. No concessions and gestures of goodwill on our part have ever deterred Russia and countries like it. These countries are doing everything they can within the boundaries of what is permissible for them, that is, where they do not expect a serious reaction on our part. Our inaction, the abstaining from the very reaction that the enemy expects from us, directly leads to an escalation of the conflict, because it expands its boundaries of what is permissible, which it will inevitably fill with increased atrocities.
By voluntarily, publicly and preemptively refusing to do anything that Russia could have expected of us, such as declaring that NATO troops will never defend Ukraine on its territory, or that our aircraft will never establish a no-fly zone over Ukraine, we significantly expand the boundaries of what is permissible for Russia, and thus contribute to the escalation of this conflict. Our voluntary retreat from our recognized prerogatives allowed Russia to expand its boundaries so much that it reached the last frontier, threatening the whole world with a nuclear catastrophe.
Our reaction can be only one thing — to immediately begin to narrow the boundaries of what is permissible for Russia and return it to its former borders. This cannot be achieved by any amount of persuasion, negotiation and agreements.
This can only be achieved by decisive, thoughtful and precise actions on our part. Providing humanitarian assistance to the people trapped in Azovstal with the help of our air force may be the first right, albeit small, step in this direction. The next such step could be the evacuation of them from this territory, and the provision of humanitarian corridors with the help of our aviation and air defense for the evacuation of civilians from the rest of Mariupol and other encircled cities.
• Yuri Yarim-Agaev was a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution, as well as a scientist and human rights activist.
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