"Western leaders have shied away from calling the Kremlin's annexation of Crimea and war in the Donbas what it is: an invasion and occupation of a sovereign nation. While intervention or action may sound more diplomatic, they are nothing more than euphemisms that misrepresent the reality on the ground," Herbst and co-author Alina Polyakova, the Dinu Patriciu Eurasia Center's Deputy Director, wrote in the article titled "How many more years will Putin occupy Ukraine?" published by Newsweek on February 27 to mark the two-year anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
"It is time that European and U.S. policy makers and Western media take Putin at his word and call a spade a spade. Euphemisms only play into the Kremlin's version of events, undermine the international community's unity against Moscow's aggression, and make it harder to formulate a coherent Western policy against the Kremlin's revisionist ambitions," the opinion article reads.
The West responded to Putin's aggression by imposing economic sanctions on Russian officials, businessmen with close ties to the Kremlin and their businesses. These measures have limited Russian banks' access to much-needed Western credit. With oil prices remaining stubbornly low, the Russian economy, which is projected to contract by 3-4% in 2016, is feeling the pain.
"Sanctions must remain in place until Ukraine controls its eastern border and Russia no longer occupies Crimea. Despite a growing chorus of pro-Putin voices in Europe, the EU must remain steadfast in its commitment to sanctions until the Minsk agreements are fully implemented and Russia withdraws its troops from Ukraine," the article reads.
In the past two years, the Kremlin-manufactured war in Ukraine has cost 10,000 Ukrainian lives, displaced more than 1.6 million and turned what was once the heart of the country's industrial base into an economic wasteland.
Russia and its proxies now occupy 9% of Ukrainian territory. Russia's actions in Crimea revised European borders for the first time since World War II and broke numerous international treaties, including the 1994 Budapest Memorandum in which Russia, the United States and the United Kingdom agreed to respect the territorial integrity and political sovereignty of Ukraine.
"Putin himself has publicly admitted and even boasted about the efficiency of Russia's military takeover of Crimea – outlining, in methodical detail, the invasion. He has also admitted that Russian soldiers are in the Donbas," the article said.
