Amidst growing risks of a large scale military conflict breaking out in Europe, the former leaders of sixteen countries of a wide geographic region have signed a joint statement urging the international community to take effective action to prevent further escalation of Russia’s eight year long undeclared war on Ukraine.

The letter was sent to the UN General Secretary Antonio Guterres to encourage the United Nations to exert all its influence to stop Russia’s aggressive plans.

Russia’s recent extortionist political statements and hostile actions show that it has no intentions of abandoning its aggressive foreign policies and far reaching strategic objectives.

While talking of peace, Russia’s actions expose it continues to seek total destruction of Ukraine as an independent and sovereign nation. Moscow is blatantly demonstrating its readiness to expand its military aggression against Ukraine beyond the currently occupied territories of Crimea and Donbas, and to escalate to a large scale armed attack on the rest of Ukraine.

Despite Moscow’s deceitful and manipulative rhetoric denying its threat to Ukraine, Russia remains on the path of war by continuing to try to coerce Ukraine into submission. Moscow is threatening Kyiv with its military build up in Russia occupied Ukrainian territory, on Ukrainian borders, and in the Black and Azov Seas; strong-arming Ukraine with its energy blackmail; intimidating Ukrainians by unlawful actions such as cyber attacks on government services and institutions, and regular bomb threats against civilian populations including schools; provoking Kyiv with an act of lawfare by preparing to officially recognize the Russian occupation administrations in Ukraine as independent political entities; and by ramping up its vicious state sponsored media propaganda dehumanizing Ukrainians daily.

These recent hostile activities come from the same toolbox of war Russia has been waging against Ukraine since 2014. They indicate that Putin is determined to escalate pressure on Kyiv to extort concessions that would allow Putin to capture Ukraine.

This is why it is of a great significance that for the first time since the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, former national leaders representing a broad international network are expressly and clearly stating that there is an “ongoing interstate conflict” between Russia and Ukraine.

This recognition of the interstate nature of the conflict represents an important shift in language about Russia’s war on Ukraine. There are no euphemisms like “crisis in Ukraine” or “separatist conflict in Ukraine incited by/ or led/, backed by Russia,” which obscure the truth of the Russian war.

The truth about the Russian war will dictate more committed action by the international community to help Ukraine defend against aggression. As the distinguished signatories of the statement say, Ukraine, as one of the greatest contributors to world peace, must receive full support from the international community to adequately defend itself, including material, financial, and military assistance.

The recognition of Russia’s responsibility as an aggressor for waging war on Ukraine, occupying both Crimea and parts of the Donbas region, is a necessary condition to put an end to any appeasement attempts to satisfy Kremlin imperialist ambitions by way of victim Ukraine making concessions.

For over a decade, the Kremlin has persistently pushed through its network of influence a so-called “Grand Bargain” with the West – a new division of spheres of geopolitical influence to recognize Russia’s privileged right to restrain the sovereignty of Eastern European and Central Asian nations. In recent months there has been a revival of pieces in Western media promoting a “Helsinki 2.0” type of a comprehensive security settlement in Europe.

The statement of the former world leaders strongly rejects these veiled attempts to change the European security order by legalizing Russia’s geopolitical conquests since the collapse of the Soviet Union. The signatories clearly state that they “reject any policies undermining the very foundation of modern rules based international order”, including “denouncing spheres of influence”.

Ukraine is not an only target of the criminal rogue regime in Moscow. Putin is not going to stop at Ukraine even if it were to be sacrificed on the altar of appeasement. Moscow has far greater ambitions of weakening the West and expanding its influence regionally and globally. This strategy is bound to create more and more conflicts around the world.

Only by treading the path of truth and forcing Russia to respect the existing international security order will the international community will be able to contain Russia’s threat to the world peace.