His Excellency Vladimir Putin, President of the Russian Federation;
His Excellency Volodymyr Zelensky, President of Ukraine
His Excellency Joseph Biden, President of the United States of America
His Excellency António Guterres, Secretary General of the United Nations
Your Excellencies,
Greetings to each of you from the government and people of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, one of the smallest member-states of the United Nations!
I write in a quest for global peace, justice, security, prosperity for all humanity, grounded in the fundamental tenets of international law, the precepts of the Charter of the United Nations, and multilateral engagement. I am making a humble plea for an honourable, negotiated end, immediately, to the war in Ukraine.
The war in Ukraine has been raging since February 2022 and has recently entered a most dangerous phase of escalation which portends an hitherto unthinkable nuclear Armageddon. To civilized men and women across the globe, this war is senseless as it has been brutal and completely unnecessary. It is as though the most powerful and advanced nations of the world have learnt nothing of lasting value from the history of humankind.
The main combatants, the Russian Federation and Ukraine, fully backed by the countries of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) led principally by the United States of America (USA), appear to the bulk of humanity’s eight billion people to be gripped by an extreme condition of unreason, in practical disregard not only of life and limb, blood and treasure of their own peoples, but of the knock-on global effects of additional pain and suffering for the rest of us, including possibly the collapse of human civilisation as we have come to know it. Ordinary men and women across the world have become helpless bystanders to a seemingly inevitable march to their own destruction, even their extinction.
Surely, it is beyond time to stop this war which, to most of us, has a tribal ferocity which is well-nigh incomprehensible. I have followed the course of this war very closely from its beginnings and through its various twists and turns; I have read, from various standpoints, of its origins, meanderings, all the accusations and counter-accusations, and the military operations on the ground. It is evident to all persons of reason, who also apply their hearts to wisdom, that this war will not end with military triumph for one side or another. Posturing and protracting this contestation on the field of battle make no sense, practically or ideationally.
It is not in my place to prescribe what a likely, negotiated peace would look like, but I feel sure, conceptually, that neither side in this war would be completely satisfied with any terms of a peace settlement. Thus, each side must be prepared to arrive, in peace, in a mutually-agreed condition of dissatisfaction. In time, this agreed condition of dissatisfaction, which is preferable to continued war may evolve, propitiously, into a more settled bundle of satisfactions.
An esteemed deceased poet of my country, Daniel Williams, wrote these memorable, and apt, lines in “We are the Cenotaphs”:
“We are all time,
Yet only the future is ours to desecrate.
The present is the past;
And the past, our fathers’ mischiefs.”
So, my solemn and urgent plea to the distinguished Presidents of the Russian Federation, Ukraine, and the United States of America, with the assistance of the esteemed Secretary General of the United Nations, is to bring the war in Ukraine to a negotiated peaceful end now, in honour to the actual combatants, their suffering families, and all humanity who are in pain.
In the early 20th century, the celebrated poet of Ireland, W.B. Yeats, at the time of a heated contestation between colonial Britain and the Irish nationalists, wrote for the ages “The Second Coming”, thus:
“Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall part; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all convictions, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.”
I urge that we all listen carefully, and reflect upon, the meaning of Yeats’ profound offering in our current context. Indeed, the heard melodies of these words are sweet, but those unheard are sweeter.
The four undoubtedly great leaders whom I address in this missive have an existential obligation not to sleep to dream, but dream to change our world for the better. We must not sleep walk into a nuclear Armageddon; and we cannot continue the current carnage. Let history absolve us.
All the best to you, your families, your governments, and your constituencies.
Sincerely yours,
Dr. The Hon. Ralph E. Gonsalves
Prime Minister
