By: Surjit Singh Flora
It has been more then four months since Russia invaded Ukraine. President Vladimir Putin declared war on February 24. But did anybody realise that a small country like Ukraine could hold off Russia, a superpower, for so long? For how long?
For all the rhetoric, Russia is still invading with a smaller force than Ukraine is defending. That suggests they don’t intend to conquer the neighbouring country as a whole but want to take large bites before they start talking peace.
This war has shown the world a terrible scenario. Some 34,000 Russian and 25,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed so far. According to a rough estimate, 60,000–70,000 innocent civilian lives have been lost so far.
The Ukrainians are superhumanly brave, and this invasion is unjustified, absurd, and cruel. The brave soldiers, the citizens standing by them and their leader, President Volodymyr Zelensky, Sure, Ukraine might not be the best nation out there, but they’re not bad. Hopefully, they can hold out and never stop fighting Russia. Not against the people of Russia. Those who protest the war are incredibly brave as well.
There is no state of “crisis” between Russia and Ukraine at this time. There is conflict as a result of an illegal invasion carried out by the imperial authorities into the neighbouring free nation. Only Russia has the ability to end this conflict by evacuating its soldiers from all of Ukraine, and only Ukraine has the right to discuss the potential parameters of peace. What the so-called “global leaders” (and who really are they?) or rather the leaders of the other nations can do is provide their support to Ukraine in their attempts to fend off aggression and bring about a just peace that will put an end to the conflict.
But the United States and NATO are not interested in bringing an end to the conflict in Ukraine. It was a slip of the tongue from Biden, and the White House attempted to walk it back, but Biden repeated it again: “Putin must go,” which indicates that the United States supports a regime transition. When there was once discussion over NATO’s relevance in Europe, the conflict provides the organisation with a reason to continue existing, and portraying China as an additional adversary makes NATO more important in that region.
As a result, in the modern world, Europe has shifted from having tighter connections with Russia to having one in which conflict is rising. In view of the present increased risk for more war, Europe will need to devise a plan to wean itself off of imports from Russia and boost its military expenditures in order to strengthen its military might
There is no way to stop the polarisation of the globe from progressing. One group will be headed by the United States and Europe, while the other will be led by Russia and China.
The question is who is responsible for the massacre. This war is terrible and needs to end immediately while keeping Ukraine’s independence. Russia, which claims to have brought socialism to it, is directly responsible for the massacre. Moscow has even announced the issuance of passports in large parts of Ukraine. Ukraine has suffered over $600 billion in economic losses.
The consequences of this war are being felt not only by Ukraine but by the whole world, including Russia. All the major multinationals have left Russia. Western countries have imposed sanctions on Russia. About 160 million people in poor countries that buy food grains from Russia and Ukraine are in danger of going hungry.
The possibility of a world war cannot be ruled out should Russia invade a supporting country—as happened in 1939, when Adolf Hitler started the seven-year Second World War. The UN and other international organizations, as well as world leaders, must now step forward.
