 When I have Professor Bola Akintarawa, former AJE Nigerian Institute of International Affairs joining us on the primetime news. Good evening. Good evening. Good evening, Prof. Thank you. Thank you for having me. Thank you very much. The pleasure is ours. Thank you for joining us on our primetime news. Now, it's really worrisome what the developments have been between Russia and Ukraine. Let me just, let's have your feelings about this. Well, on the one hand, we say it's most unfortunate. On the other hand, it is expected. It's unfortunate because of casualties, loss of lives, destruction of property. An agenda of the day, laying a foundation for a war that we do know what the beginning looks like, but the outcome that we cannot predict. So it's unfortunate, but it is expected. Because long notice has been given, Russia has indicated by a massing troops, you know, along the frontiers, borders with Ukraine, particularly from the Eastern Plains and also from the borders of Belarus. So in this case, everybody knows quite well that there is a war in the making. So in this case, the preparation for it to have told those who are trying to take sanctionary measures to evaluate, to consider the extent to which sanctions can prevent an imminent war. Prof. Prof, with the long notice, one would have thought Ukraine would have taken certain measures. Clearly, the Article 5 couldn't be invoked because Ukraine has a joint NATO. We understand that. But what could Ukraine have done to prevent this? I think it was Prof. Alaba of Gumsau who came up with the idea of not trying to be a friend of one and being the enemy of the other. Ukraine should understand that the country is a neighbor, contiguous neighbor. All right? Of Russia. And then also a neighbor to many countries in the Western world. In this case, since the Ukrainian government does understand what constitutes an anger, why Russia is much aggrieved about NATO? What the Ukrainians who have done should be to simply provide an antidote not to do anything that would aggravate. It is true that Ukraine is yet to effectively, you know, accede to the NATO agreement. But the bitter truth is that contrary to the agreement reached by the US government with Gorbachev, with Russia, you discover that the agreement was that NATO's influence would not extend to member states, you know, the countries at the moment, following the restructuring and openness of the former Soviet Union. That is, following the Glasnost and Prestoica. By this time, the Westerners did not follow this agreement anymore. Please, Poland, Estonia, Lithuania were invited to join NATO in 1997. And eventually, they joined in 1999 by so doing, extending the influence of NATO. So Russia was aggrieved. So in this case, Russia is now saying, if we did that one before, why wouldn't I, Russia, expect that we do the same thing with Ukraine? Russia is equally guilty. There is no doubt about that. Afterwards, the Budapest Agreement of 1994 provides guarantees territorial integrity of Ukraine. But in 2014, Russia is also on record to have annexed, to have carved out primary way from Ukraine. So, you see, on both sides, you can discover that the two of them, the two sides are now trying to use Ukraine. Ukraine should not allow itself to be destroyed. Okay, Prof. Now, on the last note, it's a good thing that Russia is now open to more negotiations with Ukraine. I mean, okay, Vladimir Putin is saying, all right, we're ready now to have peace talks with you. But one would wonder why come in this late, why kill as many people as they could in a day before coming back to the negotiation table? Many people, individuals, not to talk about sovereign states, they have eyes that refuse to see. They have ears that refuse to hear. That is the reason. In this case, Ukrainians were capitalizing on outside help. They were waiting for NATO countries to give them help. Whereas NATO countries only want to provide means of fighting. They are not prepared to give you troops one. Secondly, they expect to fight for themselves. They are only interested in promoting democracy at all costs. But the environmental condition of promotion of democracy in Ukraine, they are not there. So Russia decided to fight to the last drop of any Russian blood to ensure that NATO does not come closer to its border. Simply because Ukraine has a nuclear capability and capacity. Thank you. In this case, all right. Thank you, Professor Bola Kitarawa. Well, we appreciate you for joining us. We cannot exhaust that tonight. We hope that when we court you again, sometimes you'll be available for us again. Thank you for having me. Thank you very much. Hit the notification button so you get notified about fresh news updates.