March 24, 2022–The Russia-dominated military alliance known as the Collective Security Treaty Organization is keeping silent on the Ukraine crisis, including Russia’s invasion and the humanitarian outflow of refugees.
That stands in contrast to the 30 member NATO alliance, which issued a statement today in reaction to Russia’s war in Ukraine.
March Meeting on Crisis Response
Meeting this month virtually, the Moscow-based CSTO staff discussed crisis-response initiatives with military representatives from its member states. Members include Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Tajikistan.
According to a March 24 news statement about the meeting, the representatives discussed the “military and political situation in the world and the CSTO area of responsibility, modern challenges, and terrorist threats.” They also discussed the alliance’s recent involvement in Kazakhstan, where a combination of political protests and revolt turned violent.
Earlier in the month, Armenia chaired a meeting on arms control, disarmament, and nonproliferation. Armenia appears more focused on its longstanding conflict with Azerbaijan than Russia’s interest in Ukraine.
Focus Of CSTO
Based on its website, it’s fair to say the CSTO collective security alliance focuses primarily on instability emanating from Afghanistan, drug trafficking, migration, and information technology.
Although the CSTO holds joint force training exercises, the level of its military cooperation appears to be somewhat limited.
“We need to work with the CSTO states to remove the problems that exist in the sphere of military-economic cooperation. There are enough of them,” the CSTO Secretary-General Stanislav Zas said in March 2020 following a meeting with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.
Ukraine, NATO & CSTO
Prior to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, the topic of the country came up only occasionally. For instance, in late November 2021, the CSTO discussed military training exercises by U.S. and NATO forces in Eastern Europe. CSTO Secretary-General Stanislav Zas reportedly noted “the steady trend towards its aggravation,” according to the alliance’s statement.
It’s noteworthy that Zas is a Belarusian military leader who was born in the Chernihiv region of Ukraine. In January, Vas said the CSTO alliance was not involved in the talks between Russia, Ukraine, and the West, but was “closely following them” in the hopes they would reduce regional tensions.
In mid-February, Vas addressed the UN Security Council. He discussed special operations by the CSTO, including combatting terrorism and drug trafficking. He said the 3,800 CSTO peacekeeping forces were highly trained and able to contribute to UN peacekeeping operations.
“The ongoing build-up of troop formations, military infrastructure and military activities in recent years near the western borders of CSTO member States, combined with the unresolved problems in eastern Ukraine, have brought the situation to the brink of a slide towards full-scale military action,” Vas said in February. “We very much hope that the parties to the negotiation process will be able to find an acceptable solution to the problems that have developed and will not allow hostilities to break out.”
-Feb. 16, 2022 UN Security Council address by Vas
Idea of Peacekeepers Floated
Later that month, Vas floated the idea of sending CSTO peacekeepers to the breakaway area of eastern Ukraine known as Donbass. Reuters news agency reported on it after conducting an exclusive interview with Vas.
“Hypothetically you can imagine it (such a deployment) if there were goodwill from Ukraine – it is after all their territory – if there was a U.N. Security Council mandate, and if it was needed and such a decision was supported by all our governments,” Zas told Reuters for its Feb. 19 report. Vas predicted East-West tensions would remain high until all parties reach a deal on security guarantees.
That peacekeeping mission never happened. And the deal on security guarantees remains elusive, for now.
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