Russia vs Ukraine: An overview

By Sarisha Jaggi

The recent ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine has turned the entire world upside down. Everyone is entitled to their own point of view, but here’s a look from the Ukrainian perspective.

Firstly, my heart goes out to all those people who have lost their kin due to these saddening times, and my prayers go out to everyone else affected. Hopefully, we can all heal from this traumatizing set of events, and the world sees a peaceful outcome. There’s a particular quote by Benjamin Franklin that crosses my mind whenever one talks about the disadvantages of war, which we know are many. “Wars are not paid for in wartime, the bill comes later.” This quote only reminds us that war may cause death and disaster, but there are many more lasting impacts. Keeping this in mind, here’s a look into all the impacts of this war both on Ukraine as an avid participant in it, and on the world.

A little background for those of us not fully involved in the ongoings of this recent war Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24th. The reason behind this invasion was that Ukraine wanted to join the NATO formed by the USA and other prominent countries. Russia disapproved of this as it would mean a direct neighbor would be untrustable, and after a few wars between the two countries, a Budapest treaty was signed. In late 2021, early 2022, Russia again began to hold attacks on Ukraine as in recent times they brought up the topic of NATO again. Vladimir Putin’s motive for this war is to gain control over Ukraine and all the countries that once formed the USSR, giving him the power to rule over his domain with military safety and control.

Apart from the loss of life, and of property, this war has had an impact on the global economy, and political relations.

Russia has already announced that anybody who provides support to Ukraine will be at war with Russia too. This means that any country showing military support will have Russia as an enemy, and this will lead to a full-blown world war.

The US and the UK have shown support to Ukraine and so have other countries like Canada, Germany, and France. India has decided to take a neutral stance on the issue however most reports prove that India is inclined towards Russia’s side. Having said that, Russia will most definitely be supported by China and we already know that India and China have a dynamic similar to Cady Heron and Regina George from Mean Girls. So will India actually aid Russia?

The war’s beginning resulted in stock markets tanking globally. Oil, gas, metals, and telecom among others were the worst hit in India. A huge amount of the world’s oil, paper, aluminum, and metals supply comes from Russia. A huge portion of the USA's electric supply comes from Russia via Ukraine. Many general life settlements and businesses all around the world have been hit directly. Oil, the world’s most stable way of income and economy, and other such stock market shares are slowly dipping, spoiling the global economy, slowly.

Overall, most of this war’s impact is more on human life and resources than anything else. For humanity’s sake, I hope this crisis shall end and bring with it a dawn of hope and happiness.