Sema Fonkem 25/07/2023

Who is responsible for the war in Ukraine and why is there no positive outcome yet.

Some call it, Putin’s war, and others the Russo-Ukrainian war. But whatever you choose to call it or whosoever is to be blamed, it is a war nonetheless. Lives have been lost and properties damaged. It was the 24 February 2022 when Russia invaded Ukraine and ever since thousands of civilians and soldiers have died on both sides. As the war continues, soldiers are still being captured and tortured.

What more do you know about the war? 

It is an escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War which began in 2014. By June 2022, about 8 million Ukrainians were internally displaced and a similar number of people fled the country by May 2023. This is known to be Europe’s largest refugee crisis since World War 2 with a huge environmental damage and food crises. There has been a lot of controversy as well, from seeing priests bless tankers as they go to kill in the war, to seeing some dishonest media outlets staging dead-body scenes just to get the numbers. After the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991, the newly independent republics of Ukraine and Russia maintained ties. Ukraine agreed in 1994 to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and did dismantle the nuclear weapons in Ukraine left by the USSR. In return, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States agreed in the Budapest Memorandum to uphold the territorial integrity of Ukraine. In 1999, Russia signed the Charter for European Security, which reaffirmed the inherent right of each and every participating state to be free to choose or change its security arrangements.

After the Soviet Union dissolved, several former Eastern Bloc countries joined NATO, partly due to regional security threats such as the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis. Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, claimed NATO members had promised in 1990 not to let any Eastern European countries join, but this is disputed.  At the 2008 Bucharest summit, Ukraine sought to join NATO. The response from NATO members was divided, with Western European countries worried about antagonising Russia. NATO refused to offer Ukraine membership but agreed that Ukraine will one day become a member of NATO.  Putin strongly opposed the NATO membership bids, said Russia would do everything it could to prevent Ukraine from joining NATO. Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is a promise kept and delivered. As much as many may feel Ukraine needs NATO this is not the case. For what we know, NATO needs Ukraine’s military might to protect its Eastern flank. As the war goes on, President Joe Biden of the Unites States of America is more focused on NATO’s victory rather than a peace settlement. Ukraine’s president, Zelensky cares less about all that Ukraine has lost and continues to believe in NATO’s support for victory. 

Before the war, President Putin was a man embraced by world for his advancement of democracy in Russia but that is not the case anymore. Many people all over the world have condemned the war, from athletes to musicians, just anyone concerned enough. The International Criminal Court (ICC) has called for South Africa to arrest Putin if he does attend the BRICS summit that is to be held in South Africa this August 2023. That is how far other countries and even the law has been involved to see that the war comes to a peaceful end.