Contemporary War: The Unfolding Russian–Ukrainian Conflict
[객원 에디터 3기 / 한동민 기자] The armed confrontation between Russia and Ukraine has aggravated as Russia invaded the Ukrainian cities of Kyiv, Chernihiv on February 25th under the guise of a ‘special military operation.’ This conflict, though appearing to be solely between the two former-Soviet nations, in reality draws in members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the United Nations, and many Western states.
NATO plays a particularly crucial role in this conflict. During the 20th century Cold War, the United States integrated many countries, including states of the former Soviet Union, into the NATO framework. Amongst them, Ukraine also verged on joining. Yet, due to its geopolitical location between Western and Eastern Europe, which serves as a strategic barrier separating Russia from NATO allies, the Kremlin expressed strong disapproval of Ukraine’s pending membership and effectively prevented it under the Minsk agreement. Yet recently, Ukraine began showing ambitions to join NATO once again, this time proving to be enough of a catalyst for a full-scale Russian invasion into Ukraine.
The history behind this conflict is characteristically ironic. To justify the Russian military build-up along the Belarus-Ukraine border prior to the invasion, President Putin claimed that it was for the protection of Russian nationals residing in Ukraine, which many scholars have found to resoundingly mirror statements made by Adolf Hitler before the onset of the Second World War. Prior to Nazi Germany’s invasion of Poland, Hitler accused the neighboring country of persecuting ethnic German residents. Thus, such parallel claims between Putin and Hitler appear to grow closer to reality every day in the Ukrainian-Russian conflict.
Several restrictions that limit Russia’s international participation have already been enacted, including exclusion from the FIFA World Cup and any global athletic tournaments. More effective, perhaps, are the Western economic sanctions that froze Russian bank assets globally, limiting the country’s access to dollar reserves and inducing severe inflation that threatens to cripple the Russian economy at any point in time.
Yet, to ensure peace and stability, and uphold the rule of law in the international sphere, we as global citizens must do more to observe and engage during times of war and human injustice. With more than 350 deaths already reported – 14 of which were innocent children – we must unite to fulfill our responsibility of channeling our voices and call for action from our local politicians. The time is now or never to take concrete actions and stop this devastating war.
Sources: BBC News, People.com, The Spectator, English Elpais
