Security Council as Consolation Prize

Ukraine has happened to score a victory in the international arena, receiving a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council.

One can only try to imagine what it must have cost Ukraine to compete with its traditional rival in this race, Slovakia. Despite promised support from the big powers, despite numerous personal contacts, all those strings pulled by two previous Ukrainian foreign ministers, despite all the statements and assurances in the West and all kinds of international structures about Ukraine’s exceptional importance for European and international security, the result was achieved by a great deal of painstaking and inconspicuous work, including a diplomatic “landing party” at the United Nations prior to the vote and several rounds of balloting (as the Ukrainian candidacy kept failing to collect the required number of votes). In the end we received the non-permanent seat. As before, the Western press does not want to hear about Ukraine except for Chornobyl and Kyiv Dynamo. The overall impression is that, for all Europe and the West care, Ukraine could be on another planet, unlike Indonesia, China, or African countries. Judging by newspaper articles and public statements, Western politicians are not especially interested in events preceding the election, barring requests that the elections be carried out lawfully and democratically. It is clearly apparent that, had the Ukrainian state kept its domestic policy on a more or less correct course, winning political recognition would have been far easier and perhaps the world market competition would not have been that severe if not cruel.

Likewise, it is becoming increasingly clear to Western Europe that Ukraine does not yet exist as a strong and influential state, and that its interests do not concern anyone but Ukraine itself.

Most likely bringing about any positive changes in the world attitude toward Ukraine is a job to be done by the new President and new Parliament, so as to yield as few as possible consolation prizes but the grseatest possible number of real victories won in real battles.