When Russia’s invasion of Crimea in spring of 2014 put Ukraine at the center of a renewed confrontation between Moscow and the West, leading U.S. strategic thinkers argued that Ukraine’s adoption of a permanent neutral status could defuse the crisis. These appeals, however, have been routinely dismissed in Ukraine by key government officialsand foreign policy experts. At best they are branded as naïve. At worst, their proponents are accused of doing Moscow’s bidding. With Russian troops massed near Ukraine’s borders, neutrality will be an even harder sell in Kyiv. And, certainly, in order to make a more compelling case for the idea there needs to be a better grasp of the logic behind the anti-neutrality consensus within the Ukrainian policy and expert community. This logic is outlined below, preceded by a few more words about the Western calls for neutrality and the response among Ukraine’s elites.
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