Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha has urged the world to prevent Russian ruler Vladimir Putin from establishing new spheres of influence through a “new Yalta Conference.”
The Yalta Conference, held from 4 to 11 February 1945, brought together US President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin at the Livadia Palace in Crimea. As World War II neared its end, the Allied leaders negotiated the post-war order and spheres of influence in Europe.
In February, Russian authorities and the occupying administration in Crimea plan to host a televised event linking studios in Simferopol, the UK, France, and the US to mark the Yalta Conference anniversary. The broadcast is expected to push Kremlin narratives about alleged Nazism in Ukraine and the supposed obsolescence of the current world order, as per UkrInform.
“80 years ago, postwar order and spheres of influence were forged in Yalta. Today, Putin wants a new ‘Yalta’, new borders, and spheres of influence. For the sake of a secure world, the aggressor’s illegitimate demands must be rejected. He must be forced into just peace instead,” Sybiha stated.
Recently, Volodymyr Ohryzko, former Ukraine’s Foreign Minister and head of the Center for Russian Studies, has warned that Russia seeks to use the Yalta Conference legacy to promote the idea of dividing the world into spheres of influence.
He says Russia is attempting to prevent Ukraine from self-identifying as an independent state within the Western civilizational space, which cannot be divided among global players.
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