“There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people.”
― Howard Zinn
Vladimir Putin has shaken the planet this week.
Putin’s political warnings and absurd threats to Ukraine’s political territory have evolved hastily into a war.
Putin claims to ‘denazify’ Ukraine and stop a genocide in Eastern Ukraine. But this claim is mostly political pestering. The fact that Ukraine is a fair democracy is emphasized by the past impeachment of Viktor Yanukovych, the 4th president of Ukraine. Viktor was impeached on the grounds that he was unable to fulfil his duties (especially during the previous Russia-Ukraine crisis in Crimea, 2014). Viktor was also pro-Russia, was unable to fulfill the citizens’ wish to join NATO, and reportedly accepted a ‘bribe’ from Putin for the same.
So, coming back to Putin’s view of an ongoing ‘nazi-like’ extremist rule in Ukraine: What do you think?
Yes, Viktor(who was impeached) was technically not a good president, but Ukraine's democracy had the power to impeach him.
(while Putin calls this a Nazi scene, its ironic that the current President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy is a jew) On the contrary, Russia can be disproved to be a real democracy for a variety of reasons, the prime reason being- Putin is still the President!
Putin’s illegal invasion in Ukraine can be linked to Adolf Hitler’s expansion during (and before) WW2.
Ukraine’s official twitter handle responded to Putin’s claim by a ‘meme’!
Though the Ukrainian Government didn’t really intend this as a joke:-
So, it’s pretty clear how Putin has disturbed the world lately, and forever changed the lives of innocent Ukrainians for the worse. Putin himself has often been accused by international leaders of having ‘lost touch with reality.’ Clearly he is among the very few people (Including Donald Trump) who believe he did the right thing. He believes Ukrainians want to be with Russia. He even attempted to ‘prove’ this through a vote among Crimeans(Ukrainian Region occupied by Russia) in 2014. According to this public vote (conducted after Russia had sent the so-called security peacemaking forces to take control of Crimea), 97% of the people wanted to be with Russia. Technically these people were Ukrainians.
But
No international organization validated the legality of this poll.
The poll barely had 40% voter turnout and actual % of people aligning with Russia was also as less as 55%.
Legally conducted polls throughout Ukraine showed opposite results.
HISTORY OF RUSSIA AND UKRAINE
To judge the ongoing crisis between Russia and Ukraine, it’s important to analyze the historic context in which Russian and Ukrainian nationalism first began to exist.
30th December, 1922
This was the historic day when the Soviet Union was founded. The Ukrainian SSR was one of the founding members of the Union along with Russia.
If Ukraine was on good terms with Russia why did it feel the need to leave the union and become an independent state?
Mostly it was due to the wave/trend of modern democratization that spread across the whole world during the 20th century. Moreover, in parts of Western Ukraine people identified themselves with European culture as well as an independent Ukrainian identity. There were many other factors as well like -
The cold war between US and Soviet
The ‘not-so-successful’ Perestroika:- (Russian: “restructuring” program instituted in the Soviet Union by Mikhail Gorbachev in the mid-1980s to restructure Soviet economic and political policy.)
So, January 1990 Ukraine saw a human chain of more than 400,000 people joining hands which stretched all the way from western city of Ivano-Frankivsk to Kyiv, the capital, in the north-central part of Ukraine, approximately 400 miles. All were waving the blue and yellow ukrainian flag which was banned under the rule of the Union. After around one and a half years of struggle, Ukraine along with 13 states other than Russia, were officially declared as independent states.
But this was not it.
Crimea Region of Ukraine
Crimea remained with the USSR from the formation of the Soviet Union in 1922 till 1954 when they decided to give it away to the Ukrainian SSR so as to restore friendly relations after the death of Joseph Stalin.
But if they gave it away willingly, why would Russia annex Crimea in 2014?
Well, the answer to that is pretty complicated if we go by the factual standpoint. According to Russia’s Prez, the Russian troops in the Crimean peninsula were aimed "to ensure proper conditions for the people of Crimea to be able to freely express their will”. But if they willingly gave Crimea to Ukraine, why would Russia seize Crimea in 2014 arguing it had a historic claim to it? The Russian president or their parliament did not admit anything but it’s mostly due to Crimea’s Oil pipelines and their gas plants which hold a lot of economic value.
Meanwhile the crisis has had a far reaching impact on the global economy.
ECONOMIC IMPACT OF RUSSIA-UKRAINE CRISIS
The demoralizing geopolitical conditions caused due to this has a far-reaching impact on world economies. Why is this happening?
Russia has a major share in the trade of petroleum and Ukraine’s farms feed millions around the world which will have a fatal impact. The West responded to this by imposing trade sanctions that have and will cause disruption of financial markets and others are ready to act upon it.
Inflation is on a rise up for the short run causing price surges and supply chain disturbances. How did this affect the visible markets? The inflated secondary markets are plummeting due to global sell-off passing the threshold.
The situation is getting worse everyday. After this article was written, Russia penetrated further into Ukraine, bombed practically the entire country and added yet another country to the list of war-torn conflict zones struggling to maintain their own independence.
We hope the situation gets better and sanctions on Russia force them to deescalate the attack.
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