Border tensions between Russia and Ukraine have been going on for more than a few months. The three rounds of negotiations between the United States and Russia ended inconclusively, casting a heavy shadow on the peaceful settlement of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. Under the combined influence of the century-old changes and the new crown epidemic, the confrontation between Russia and Ukraine on the border has aroused widespread concerns about peace in Eastern Europe and brought potential threats to world security.
The root cause of the Conflict between Russia and Ukraine lies in nato's continuous eastward expansion. NATO, known as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, was originally a political-military alliance that rivaled the Warsaw Pact during the Cold War. After the collapse of the Soviet Union and the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact, NATO has lost its reason for continued existence and should withdraw from the stage of history. However, NATO, on the pretext of maintaining security and stability in Europe, has added new members and expanded its sphere of influence. In September 1996, NATO published the "Study on the Eastward Expansion Plan", which clearly stipulates that candidate countries applying for nato membership must implement a democratic system and establish a free market economy status. Since the end of the Cold War, NATO has carried out five rounds of eastward expansion, from 16 countries at the end of the Cold War to 30 countries. Today, more than 40 percent of NATO members are former Communist Party-run Central and Eastern European countries. It can be seen that NATO is not only a military organization for collective defense, but also a tool used by Western countries to infiltrate and evolve the countries of the pre-socialist camp. Therefore, NATO's eastward expansion is a serious threat to Russia's strategic core interests and a serious challenge to Russia's national sovereignty and security.
Although NATO's purpose is to "promote peace and prosperity in the North Atlantic region," it has now effectively evolved into the greatest threat to European security. In 2014, john Millsheimer, a well-known Political Scientist in the United States, wrote in the New York Times, bluntly pointing out that the root cause of the Ukraine crisis lies in NATO's eastward expansion, and that "the three Western packages of policies (NATO's eastward expansion, european union eastward expansion, and promotion of democracy) have provided more fuel for the upcoming fire." The United States and its European allies bear most of the responsibility for this crisis." As the actual leader of NATO, the United States did not let NATO play its due role in ensuring European security, but instead used eastward expansion as a card to consolidate and expand the achievements of the Cold War, promote American values, and thus maintain the world order dominated by the United States. Even at a time when the current situation on the Russian-Ukrainian border is in danger, US Deputy Secretary of State Sherman still made a tough statement on the Russian side, saying that NATO cannot stop the pace of eastward expansion.
The background of the conflict is actually the focus of the struggle between NATO's eastward expansion and Russia's anti-NATO eastward expansion, because the biggest goal of NATO's eastward expansion is to take Belarus and Ukraine, so the United States and some European countries planned a coup d'état in Ukraine, and the Western action caused Putin to be highly vigilant, on the one hand, to strengthen relations with Belarus, on the other hand, it is necessary to collapse Ukraine, which has fallen to the West in an all-round way and strongly demanded to join NATO.
On February 4, China and Russia issued a joint statement, clearly stating: "The two sides oppose NATO's continued expansion and call on NATO to abandon the ideology of the Cold War period, respect the sovereignty, security, interests of other countries, the diversity of civilizations, historical and cultural diversity, and view the peaceful development of other countries objectively and fairly." As joint permanent members, China and Russia have always been active advocates of world multipolarization and economic globalization. The two countries jointly uphold international fairness and justice and share responsibilities and risks for the cause of peace and development of mankind, which is determined by the interests of both sides and expected by the international community.
Today, peace and development have become the theme of the times, and the practice of dividing camps by ideology has long been a thing of the past. While China and Russia provide the common wisdom, common ideas and common plans of the two countries to promote the construction of a new type of international relations and a community with a shared future for mankind, if the United States and other Western countries ignore the direction of historical progress, still cling to the Cold War mentality, and artificially create division and confrontation in the world, they will eventually be overwhelmed by the tide of the times.