Ukraine’s intrusion by the Russian Federation after months of enormous military build-up has spurned the world, threatening to kindle a large-scale war involving notable world powers.
Russian forces bombarded from conglomerate fronts, including from Crimea, whichVladmir Putin had appropriated in 2014 and from two breakaway provinces that had seceded with the Russian military’s support, and from Belarus. Explosions rocked Ukrainian cities and ground forces penetrated backed by tanks, artillery, warplanes and attack helicopters.
The stratagem espoused by Russian troops in Ukraine raises forebodings of a looming humanitarian cataclysm, with the progressively variegated air assault of civilian areas inflaming a spiralling death toll and spawning a wave of refugees scurrying the country for the neighbouring nations. Given Putin’s record as a pillager of cities such as Grozny and Aleppo, these concerns are more than vindicated.
With Russian forces closing on Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the government requesting its three million people to take up arms, Putin’s war may avail pogrom. It is the most preposterous infraction of another country’s sovereignty since Iraq under the late Saddam Hussein overswarmed and “annexed” Kuwait in August ,1990. Whichever means the world mobilised to expel the Iraqi invaders, it must rally to halt Putin’s tyranny.
In his efforts to exculpate the invasion of Ukraine, the Russian President has made multifarious uncultivated claims of a “genocide” committed by the Ukrainian authorities against the population of Russian-occupied Eastern Ukraine. These unsubstantiated allegations are all the more sneering given the very real genocidal potential of the war Putin has now unleashed.
The photographs transmitted from the streets of Ukraine have renewed the flashbacks of the wars of the 20th century, of a type that once seemed inconceivable in 2022. Many have been left to speculate: is it a new cold war or the beginning of a third world war? Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, appears to be receiving favourable responses as he obtains further weapons. That is why several options need to be on the table to avoid imminent disaster.
The origin of the current war dates back to the beginning of Putin’s reign and reflects his unwholesome obsession with Ukraine. He has never made any attempt to conceal his contempt for Ukrainian independence, which he regards as an accident of history and the most painful of the many injustices brought about by the 1991 Soviet collapse.
Putin must be cut short and impelled to depart Ukraine. Should he be indulged to get away with his nihilistic act, he could move on to other irresolute neighbours, invigorate similar despots and ultimately retrogress the relative peace the world has relished since the end of the World War II in 1945. His brigandage harks back to a contemptible past of stronger powers making unattainable demands on decrepit neighbours, marauding, and annexing them.
The threats exchanged by Russia and United State-led NATO have taken a precarious turn as Moscow announces a nuclear alert. It is the second time the world has come close to a nuclear war. As the war exacerbates, Putin’s rhetoric has become shrill. He has put his country on nuclear alert, sparking outrage and denunciation from the US and its allies.  Many quibble that Putin’s nuclear sabre-rattling has brought the world to the 1962 period designated the “Cuban Missile Crisis.”
Aside from his hankering, the Russian tyrant wants assurances from Ukraine that it would not seek NATO and EuropeanUnion (EU) membership. It claims that the request is imperative for its security. Ukraine has shunned such demands as an abdication of its sovereignty. Besides, the two breakaway and rebel-held Donetsk and Luhansk domains not only disinherit the country of colonies, but they also persist in claiming most of the rest of Ukraine as theirs.
Meanwhile, the world has reacted with anger. Financial sanctions imposed by the US and Western allies are smothering the Russian economy. The country’s economy has begun to founder under the pressure of exceptional penalties. The US and EU are preventing certain Russian banks from access to the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT), a messaging system utilised by banks to operate transactions.
Russia’s decision to exact a military solution to the political question of Ukraine is a criminal blunder reclining on a might-is-right contention. Russian officials claim to be open to talks, but Putin’s description of the Ukrainian government as “a band of drug addicts and neo-Nazis” shows Moscow is unserious. Care must be taken as the world slides into a protracted international struggle for spheres of influence among great powers.
We insist that Ukraine is a sovereign nation that should be free to decide its destiny, including establishing economic, political and even military relationships with any bloc. Russia cannot dictate to it. It is perhaps a long and hard task, but the world should be firm on this principle of the inviolability of the sovereignty of one country by another. The United Nations must step up to liberate Ukraine.
At this moment of superlative danger, it is essential that the Russian President and sole originator of this pointless scourge, execute an instantaneous armistice. Militarily, he has miscalculated, diplomatically, he is isolated, as the UN Security Council’s denunciation of Moscow’s actions shows. Even his citizens have declined to endorse this noxious aggression. At home, his war is aggravating extensive revolts and turmoil.
Putin crossed every conceivable red line and suddenly turned his country into an international pariah. He must pay a huge price for his action. While we call for discretion and a relaxation of positions, we must exert pressure on the Russian leader to end the chess game in Ukraine. The world powers must, willy-nilly, arrive at a consensus as quickly as possible before someone clasps a button.