Beware ‘neutrality fetishism’ warns ex-Swiss ambassador to Kyiv

I don't think their neutrality is the only reason they haven't been involved in a war in modern times. Geography certainly plays a part. But the fact is it's worked for Switzerland so I completely understand their desire to remain neutral today.

Ukraine is definitely in an unfortunate position geographically, as it's wedged between two great powers. The reality is that Ukraine was always going to be vulnerable to Russian domination because of their geographic position. But their political leadership chose to align themselves with the western bloc without actually having any defensive alliance with that bloc. It was the worst of both worlds. Their western alignment made them a hostile target but that alignment didn't give them any defensive security guarantees. Based on the furious reaction of Zelensky to NATO in March 2022, it seems he was either misled or he was naive. He said this in March 2022:

"Unfortunately, today there is a complete impression that it is time to give a funeral repast for something else: security guarantees and promises, determination of alliances, values that seem to be dead for someone....All the people who will die starting from this day will also die because of you. Because of your weakness, because of your disunity...is this the NATO we wanted? Is this the alliance you were building? ... You will not be able to buy us off with liters of fuel for liters of our blood, shed for our common Europe, for our common freedom, for our common future,"

It seems pretty clear that Zelensky was under a false impression of a security guarantee from NATO. And that likely informed his decisions to align with Europe. History will judge how smart that was.

/r/europe Thread Parent Link - swissinfo.ch