According to international law, neutrality refers to an obligation of a state to not interfere in military conflicts of other states.
Ukraine on Wednesday rejected Russia's proposals to adopt neutral status like Austria or Sweden as it continued negotiations on a peace deal with Moscow’s delegation.
"Ukraine is now in a direct state of war with Russia. As a result, the model can only be 'Ukrainian' and only on legally verified security guarantees," Ukraine’s top negotiator Mikhailo Podolyak said in comments published by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's office.
Instead, Ukraine is pressing Russia for a legally binding security agreement, signed by international partners, who would "not stand aside in the event of an attack on Ukraine, as they do today".
This comes a day after the Kremlin said that a neutral Ukraine along the lines of Sweden or Austria could be a possible compromise to end three weeks of onslaught in the east European nations. "This is an option that is being discussed now and that can be considered as a compromise," Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Tuesday.
His comments came after Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov also said neutrality was taking centre stage at the talks.
Living under the shadow of Russia, Ukraine has long expressed its wish to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), a military alliance of Western countries, to protect itself from aggression from any nation. Russia has demanded that Ukraine renounce this and declare itself neutral.
What is neutral status?
According to international law, neutrality refers to an obligation of a state to not interfere in military conflicts of other states. This includes avoiding entering into military alliances such as NATO or Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO). As a type of non-combatant status, nationals of neutral countries enjoy protection under the law of war from belligerent actions to a greater extent than other non-combatants such as enemy civilians and prisoners of war.
Examples of this are countries such as Switzerland, Sweden, Ireland, Finland and Austria. However, the status of neutrality is interpreted differently by respective countries. For example, Costa Rica is a neutral country, however, it has demilitarised, while Switzerland has adapted to "armed neutrality" and has barred itself from foreign deployment.
Sweden officially is militarily non-aligned in peacetime and neutral in times of war, having ended its policy of neutrality in 1992 at the end of the Cold War. It is not a member of NATO, but it has been a partner to the alliance for nearly 30 years.
According to experts, adopting a neutrality status is the easy way forward for Ukraine to end the violence that has been raging for more than 15 days now.
0 Comments