Nataliia NECHAIEVA-YURIICHUK
Yuriy Fedkovych Chernivtsi National University, Chernivtsi, Ukraine

Ukraine is one of the founding members of the United Nations. Even though in 1945 Ukraine was a part of the USSR as a Soviet republic, its enormous contribution to the victory over Nazism and considerable losses in World War II gave grounds to recognize it as a founding member of the UN. And this is fundamental. After all, a state that stood at the origins of an international peace organization has corresponding international obligations. And as soon as Ukraine gained independence and global recognition, it began to fulfil the commitments it had assumed before it was an independent state. And this is the second point I want to emphasize. Responsibility to the international community is what distinguishes the Ukrainian state. Just a moment of attention – during the years of the Russian-Ukrainian war, Ukraine continued to transit gas to Europe through signed contracts and obligations. It’s hard to imagine any other country doing the same for Ukraine, but I may exaggerate.

The participation of any state in UN peacekeeping missions is essential for the international community and the state itself. Participation in peacekeeping missions confirms the declared positions on maintaining peace and security worldwide. Why has it been and remains essential for Ukraine? There are many factors. First, it is an opportunity to prove itself in the international arena as a peacekeeping state, to gain (and maintain) a positive image as a reliable partner and a predictable ally. Isn’t this what we expect from our partners today? The next thing is that this is in line with and has been in line with our foreign policy course from the very beginning, both in terms of membership and activities in the UN and the prospects of joining the European Communities. Although the wording of the latter was very cautious – “if it does not harm its national interests”. In addition, participation in peacekeeping operations also increases the professionalism of our military personnel because they, like all personnel involved in peacekeeping, are subject to extremely high requirements and undergo serious training. Of course, there is also a financial component since financing missions is a shared responsibility of all UN member states, and the state whose troops participate in the mission receives funds for it.

The declaration of independence of our country on August 24, 1991, and the subsequent referendum on December 1 marked the beginning of a new era in Ukrainian history. The basic principles, directions and priorities of our country’s foreign policy were defined in 1993 by the Verkhovna Rada Resolution “On the Main Directions of Ukraine’s Foreign Policy”. It stated, first of all, that Ukraine condemns war as an instrument of national policy and that Ukraine attaches “primary importance to the peacekeeping activities of the UN bodies.” However, as early as July 3, 1992, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted a Resolution “On the Participation of a Battalion of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in the Conflict Zones in the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia”, which clearly stated that our country’s participation in this peacekeeping mission “meets the interests of maintaining peace and security on the European continent”. Since then and until February 24, 2022, according to open sources, Ukrainian peacekeepers have participated in 13 international UN peacekeeping operations. However, with the beginning of Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy recalled Ukrainian peacekeepers home. The reason is apparent: the war.

The first peacekeeping mission Ukraine joined was in the Balkans. 1992. Ukraine had just gained independence. We had just begun to exhale the Soviet past and were very happy that we managed to gain independence without war because what was happening next door was disturbing. There were more than one or two hotbeds of war around Ukraine, but it was in the Balkans that our peacekeepers received the battle christening, so to speak. At first, it was a contingent formed exclusively of volunteers from all over the country – the 240th Special Battalion. Its tasks included protecting and ensuring the functioning of the airport in Sarajevo, escorting convoys with humanitarian aid, and the list goes on. The situation was challenging, and in the face of actual fighting, our guys, as they say, kept the line because they had to protect the local population from attacks by armed groups, escort humanitarian cargo, ensure airport security, etc. In 1993, the size of the Ukrainian contingent was increased. One can find a lot of information about the events and participation of Ukrainian peacekeepers in the Balkans. However, the most successful operation of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (before the outbreak of the war in Ukraine in 2014) was the evacuation of civilians from the zone of escalation of the military situation in the enclave of Zepa, where Ukrainian peacekeepers were caught in the crossfire of different parties to the conflict. More than 5,000 people were evacuated, and our side had no losses. Isn’t that amazing? Back in the early 1990s, Ukrainian peacekeepers in the Balkans gained new experience and demonstrated to the world community their military potential and ability to perform the most difficult tasks in the most challenging conditions.

Every mission in which our peacekeepers participated, and peacekeepers in general, is important. After all, people’s lives depended (and still depend) on it. And the life of every person is priceless. In 1993, the Ukrainian side carried out a humanitarian mission in Georgia. Again, this mission demonstrated that, despite the complexity of the combat conditions, the Ukrainian military would fulfil the tasks assigned to them. In a few days in October 1993, under fire from Russian-Abkhazian troops, Ukrainian pilots made 291 sorties and saved more than seven and a half thousand people from ethnic cleansing. Of course, many people stayed in the mountains of Svaneti, where the operation took place, and humanitarian aid was delivered to them.

In Sierra Leone, the civil war lasted almost 11 years, and it was characterized by particular brutality on the part of the rebels. Imagine this: the country is rich in minerals, in particular diamonds. It became a subject of particular interest to various large companies and smugglers interested in diamonds. That led to disastrous consequences for the population. The UN sent its peacekeeping contingent into the country in 1999. Ukrainian aviators rescued and evacuated victims from the water by helicopter in 2004 near the Mami Yoko Peninsula. A boat with 50 passengers sank then. Ukrainian peacekeepers rescued those people, as mentioned above. There have been many similar operations when our militaries were in Sierra Leone.

From proclaiming Ukrainian independence to the beginning of a large-scale war against our country, Ukrainian peacekeepers have participated in various international peacekeeping missions. And I am convinced that as soon as the war is over and the UN asks Ukraine to join another peacekeeping mission, our military will participate. After all, it is a matter of honour and values. Ukraine’s participation in peacekeeping missions is about social responsibility, professionalism, values and respect for every person’s life, regardless of origin, skin colour, religion, etc.

The Russian-Ukrainian war has had a significant impact on the perception of Ukraine and the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Even today, the Ukrainian military can share real combat experience and conduct top-level training for their partners. And after the war, our combat experience will be more than in demand in different parts of the world. It is gained at a high price and is priceless a priori. It is about understanding modern warfare in all its manifestations, the dynamics of changes in strategy and tactics, working algorithms of interaction between military and civilians in emergency situations, experience in evacuating civilians from the front line, the expediency of introducing a peacekeeping contingent in a given situation, etc. But most importantly, it is about the undeniable value of human life and the realization that childhood, as they say, has a validity period. The task of adults is to guarantee childhood, and peacekeepers’ task is to provide maximum opportunities for this in critical conditions.

The development of Ukraine’s current military and political situation raises the question of the possibility of sending peacekeepers to our country. But first of all, Ukraine must decide what exactly it wants. Suppose it is an international operation to force Russia to peace under the auspices of the United Nations. In that case, we must consider one fact: Russia is still a veto-wielding member of the UN Security Council. And this directly impacts the potential deployment of a peacekeeping contingent in Ukraine. And if we add to this the recent decisions of American President Donald Trump and his administration and the recent talks between Trump and Zelenskyy in the White House, this is more than a question.

Of course, the United Nations is not the only one conducting peacekeeping missions and operations. But we will not be talking about peacekeepers acting on the Ukrainian side. Their task is to maintain peace and protect civilians in the first place. Many mechanisms for this have been implemented in different parts of the world. This may be the only way out at a particular stage. However, this will not guarantee the restoration of territorial integrity and the prevention of military aggression by Russia. Moreover, Russia’s hybrid war against our country did not begin today, not to mention the information war, and it will not end as long as this country exists. Even with a ceasefire and the deployment of a peacekeeping contingent, the information war against Ukraine will continue, and discrediting our country in the international arena will take on more and more distorted forms (from mosquitoes to the Ukrainian trace in the downing of the Azerbaijani airliner on December 15, 2024, in Russian airspace). Only the revocation of Russia’s veto in the UN Security Council and its subsequent prosecution for crimes against Ukraine and its civilian population can protect not only us but the entire world from the Kremlin’s aggressive policy.