Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves has written to the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, President of the United States Joseph Biden and the Secretary General of the United Nations, António Guterres calling for an end to the war in Ukraine.
“I write in a quest for global peace, justice, security, prosperity for all humanity, grounded in the fundamental tenets of international law, the precepts of the Charter of the United Nations, and multilateral engagement,” Gonsalves said in his Dec. 2 letter, which his office released to the media on Monday.
“I am making a humble plea for an honourable, negotiated end, immediately, to the war in Ukraine,” he said in the missive, which was copied to heads of state and government of members of the United Nations
Gonsalves noted that the war has been raging since February 2022 and has “recently entered a most dangerous phase of escalation which portends an hitherto unthinkable nuclear Armageddon.
“To civilised men and women across the globe, this war is senseless as it has been brutal and completely unnecessary. It is as though the most powerful and advanced nations of the world have learnt nothing of lasting value from the history of humankind.”
He said the main combatants, the Russian Federation and Ukraine, fully backed by the countries of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization led principally by the United States, “appear to the bulk of humanity’s eight billion people to be gripped by an extreme condition of unreason, in practical disregard not only of life and limb, blood and treasure of their own peoples, but of the knock-on global effects of additional pain and suffering for the rest of us, including possibly the collapse of human civilisation as we have come to know it.
“Ordinary men and women across the world have become helpless bystanders to a seemingly inevitable march to their own destruction, even their extinction.
“Surely, it is beyond time to stop this war which, to most of us, has a tribal ferocity which is well-nigh incomprehensible.”
Gonsalves said he has followed the course of the war very closely from its beginnings and through its various twists and turns.
He said he has read, from various standpoints, of the war’s “origins, meanderings, all the accusations and counter-accusations, and the military operations on the ground.
“It is evident to all persons of reason, who also apply their hearts to wisdom, that this war will not end with military triumph for one side or another. Posturing and protracting this contestation on the field of battle make no sense, practically or ideationally.”
The Vincentian leader said it was not his place to prescribe what a likely, negotiated peace would look like.
“… but I feel sure, conceptually, that neither side in this war would be completely satisfied with any terms of a peace settlement.”
He said each side must, therefore, be prepared “to arrive, in peace, in a mutually-agreed condition of dissatisfaction.
“In time, this agreed condition of dissatisfaction, which is preferable to continued war may evolve, propitiously, into a more settled bundle of satisfactions.”
Gonsalves quoted Vincentian poet Daniel Williams’ “We are the Cenotaphs” in which he wrote “We are all time, / Yet only the future is ours to desecrate. / The present is the past; /And the past, our fathers’ mischiefs.”
“So, my solemn and urgent plea to the distinguished Presidents of the Russian Federation, Ukraine, and the United States of America, with the assistance of the esteemed Secretary General of the United Nations, is to bring the war in Ukraine to a negotiated peaceful end now, in honour to the actual combatants, their suffering families, and all humanity who are in pain.”
He further quoted early 20th century Irish poet W.B. Yeats, who at the time of a heated contestation between colonial Britain and the Irish nationalists, wrote “The Second Coming”.
In the early 20th century, the celebrated poet of Ireland, W.B. Yeats, at the time of a heated contestation between colonial Britain and the Irish nationalists, wrote for the ages “The Second Coming”.
“I urge that we all listen carefully, and reflect upon, the meaning of Yeats’ profound offering in our current context. Indeed, the heard melodies of these words are sweet, but those unheard are sweeter,” Gonsalves said, echoing
English poet John Keats.
“The four undoubtedly great leaders whom I address in this missive have an existential obligation not to sleep to dream, but dream to change our world for the better. We must not sleep walk into a nuclear Armageddon; and we cannot continue the current carnage. Let history absolve us,” he further said, echoing Guyanese poet Martin Carter.
The letter is the second that Gonsalves has written to Putin since the war began.
In a February 2022 letter shortly after the war began, Gonsalves told Putin, “As a longstanding friend of the Russian Federation, St. Vincent and Grenadines is deeply disturbed at your government’s initiative of a special military operation in the territory of Ukraine, an independent republic.”
In the letter, Gonsalves had told Putin that the government of SVG understood “your articulation of the legitimate security considerations of the Russian Federation and your perspectives on the political situation in the region of Donbas, inclusive of the declaration of the Donetsk People’s Republic and the Luhansk People’s Republic”.
Gonsalves, however, had said that Putin’s government stance on the matter at hand, “taken at its highest in your favour, cannot reasonably justify the special military operation upon which Russia has embarked.
“Self evidently, the metaphoric horse and chariot have been driven through the chatter of the United Nations.”
Write [text] SVG GANG LEADERS calling for end of killings in SVG!!!!
President of Russia and Ukraine writes to SVG pm to fix the poverty crisis, crime and corruption in St. Vincent.
How about fixing the little gang “wars” in St Vincent for an example?
Can u hear yourself speaking? for ……, justice, ……, and prosperity.
Let mi remind u, the vaccine mandate that send so many hardworking vincentain into poverty.
Comrade it is s truism that cockroach has to right in fowl business. In the event. Of a fight they are the ones first to be eaten. I am not saying that one should be oblivious to the suffering around ghe world. However, we ad Vincentians have a bigger fish to fry. Our fish is the wat that is currently taking place in SVG.
The homicide numbers for 2024 was 55 , in 2024 it was at least 54. What this tells us folks? SVG is one of the most violent places in the per capita. Vincentians in the diaspora are afraid to return home for safety reasons. Who would have thought that SVG homicide rate would have surpassed that of the most violent countries in the Caribbean , Jamaica and Trinidad. Having said that wehen we are comparing the statistics to those two countries. You would realise that we are not in good company.
Last Christmas, Vincentians were awaken by the sad news that a diaspora Vincentian who was based in Canada was murdered in cold blood. I am keeping the reasons zipped given the matter is considered to be pending. The author is the one who us calling for peace in Ukraine. He should be quickly reminded the the good book spoke about the beam and the mote in the eyed with respect to priority.
If you and your neighbor’s house are on fire simultaneously. Which one will you extinguish first? The Comrade by calling for a truce between Russia and Ukraine is intuitively saying that one must extinguish the fire in a foreign back yard before his own fire. Comrade for the new year. I caution you to know your priority.
This is rich, coming from a man who has continuously waged economic warfare against his own countrymen for standing up for their right, to live a dignified life.
2012: 80+ port police officers fired, without care or concern for them or their families.
2021: 500+ public servants illegally fired for refusing to take the COVID vaccine.
Take the beam outta your eye and your foot off of our necks, value brand Castro.
In my opinion, yo should write to yo self to end the war against the citizens , de worker sacked for not taking experimental jab, bigger , de teacher lady , and so many many others, some of whom has passed ,.. . Why yo fighting against the court ruling? dem ah the war yo have to first end, ar yo really shameless.
Ralph posturing and deflecting as usual. This letter is for him returning favors. Putin’s minions on the super yachts probably asking him to write the letter so that Putin can look like the humanitarian yielding to geopolitical pressure for peace.
The peasantization of the Vincentian people over the last 24 years, destroying the middle class and lowering the lower class into peasantry, where people are worse off today than during the last 200 years in SVG. This passive aggression against the whole population is just wicked and nasty and can be blamed on one man and his love for communist Cuba and other nasty left wing socialist crazies. Farmers converted to serfs and security guards. Market traders abused and their goods and stalls smashed up, their only form of income destroyed. Crime out of control murders by the minute and people dodging stray bullets countrywide. The country has become the rape capital of the Caribbean, with even its prime minister being accused of rape and sexual assault on a myriad of women. No court appearance so no guilty or not guilty result, but it is the disgrace that even such accusations bring to the Vincentian people. Businesspeople maliciously and spitefully attacked for political reasons and their business’s destroyed and family and relatives refused government work by association. Police out of control beating people in the interview rooms and cells to force them to plead guilty and admit to crimes they never did. The majority of the country bribed to vote ULP and keep the same nasty political party in power for 24 years when their place should be down the toilet flushed with all the other stinking excrement.
Those are the things that want laying before the UN, that is what Friday should be writing to world leaders about the filth the Vincentian people have been forced to endure.
This man is of the bloodline of communism socialist dictatorship here in the Caribbean using diplomatic ties to fight against freedom and democracy while promoting Socialism bondage and oppression of Nations and people in Venezuela ,Cuba and their SATANIC socialist communism dictators AGENDA that is the Root of the United Nations 🌎 SYSTEM SATAN last world 🌍 controlled SYSTEM wake up people don’t be fooled by their play acting and lies !