The Russia-Ukraine crisis that began on 24 February 2022 has divided academics and keen observers of international politics. While some argue that as a sovereign state, Ukraine should be allowed to determine its own security alliances, others opine that Russia’s national security concerns are understandable in light of Ukraine’s increasing rapprochement with NATO. It is against this backdrop that the Future of Diplomacy Research Group, Institute for the Future of Knowledge, at the University of Johannesburg (UJ) held a webinar titled Russia-Ukraine Crisis: Escalation or Détente? on 16 March, 2022. The main speakers were Ambassador Ilya Rogachev, the Russian Ambassador to South Africa, Ambassador Steven Pifer, former US Ambassador to Ukraine (1998-2000) and William J. Perry Fellow, Center for International Security and Cooperation, Stanford University, California, United States, and Distinguished Professor David Marples, from the Department of History, Classics, and Religion at the University of Alberta, Canada.