21st century – and yet the days of conquest and rule haven’t passed. While half of the world has been talking about global citizenry, Governments are fighting over territory, consisting of people who don’t have an option to decide where they belong. Evasions in parts of Africa, Korea, Afghanistan and parts of the so-called bloc of the “colonizers” of the third world countries, have left the entire world in dismay.
February, 2014, Russia began infiltrating over the Ukrainian border, in order to annex the Autonomous Republic of Crimea which used to be recognised as a part of Ukraine’s territory and thus, succeeded in their mission by the end of March. Their thirst for conquest didn’t end here. Novorossiya (New Russia), during the expansionist Tsarists empire used to consist of parts (specifically, Odesa, Mykolaiv, Kirovohrad, Dnipropetrovsk, Kherson, Zaporizhya, Donetsk, and Luh ansk), which are completely under Ukraine now, but since the vast majority of people living there aren’t Russians anymore, taking over these territories is likely to breach their freedom of speech and justice.
Obama, in context of this dreadful war, said “…trying to reclaim lands ‘lost’ in the 19th century is surely not the way to secure Russia’s greatness in the 21st century.” And yet, while the upsurge about the Russian Spy Scandal in New York City hadn’t died, rockets were launched through a territory under the control of rebels supporting Russia last weekend, killing around 30 civilians in a market in Mariupol. Putin, earlier last week said that he believes NATO is using Ukraine (which is not a part of NATO) as a bait in order to take hold of Russia itself through a proxy war, therefore, the debate is no longer about the Minsk Agreements – which called for a political solution to be laid out to deal with the inner Ukrainian conflict, decentralizing of State authority, new elections, exchanging of prisoners and an open table dialogue, which NATO refused to be made a part of. It has been found that American soldiers are working at the ground force for the city of Mariupol, as figured by RT news service, a Russian media enterprise.
30 civilians buried – Mariupol. 5,100 dead – in the entire conflict.
Putin has been game to giving surprises to the western nations lately, and it is being believed that he’s getting ready for a “holy mission of war” against Ukraine, with open military intervention, engaging perhaps another grave war, whereas Gorbachev, the last president of the Soviet Union, in an interview said that, “Plainly speaking, the US has already dragged us into a new Cold War, trying to openly implement its idea of triumphalism…What’s next? Unfortunately, I cannot be sure that the Cold War will not bring about a ‘hot’ one. I’m afraid [the United States] might take the risk.” He objected strongly against the economic sanctions issued by the US and the EU, on a daily basis lately. He continued, “All we hear from the US and the EU now is sanctions against Russia, are they completely out of their minds? The US has been totally ‘lost in the jungle’ and is dragging us there as well.”
In an attempt to preserve Russia’s endangered economy and the declining value of ruble, the Russian central bank reduced its current interest rate by 2 points, to 15%, which they had increased a month back by 6.5 points, making it 17%. This indicates how the sanctions issued lately by its so-called global partners have started to leave a grave impact on Russia’s economy, leading to a political crisis, as the oil prices have also collapsed.
A residential area in Donetsk was shelled, on Thursday. Two civilians died.
More than 5,000 people have been killed since April, 2014 and the number continues to rise each day, with the endless shelling and the curbing of peace talks in an order to show “aggression”, leaving the civilians to suffer the grave consequences of a power hungry State. Red Tape has started to prevent citizens from fleeing these shell-struck areas, while the pro-Russian separatists are required to present their passports and evidence stating their need to travel. This process sometimes takes more than 10 days. UN has also said that these security measures are wrong since they’re preventing UNHCR from providing aid to the people in time, leading to a major humanitarian crisis.
“I’m looking around — pieces of meat everywhere, just pieces of meat, some bodies … [were] just lying there.” Artur – a wounded Russian rebel.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VKDPo_8_c8
Ukrainian soldiers forced to eat their uniforms.
The pro-Russian rebel fighter: ‘Why have you come here? Who called you to kill our people and destroy our homes? Do you know me? I’m Givi! I grew up here, this is my land, but I will come to you, so that you too know what this is, this is hell.”
The irony remains in the fact that instead of moving a step ahead, the world is taking two steps backwards; falling into a pit it dug for itself, in order to showcase superiority of the most absurd.
They have failed to realise that it isn’t about winning anymore, and that it never would be. There have been causalities on both of the sides before, and it’d continue to be the same way until they fully realise and take responsibility for the consequences of their deeds. A country is supposed to look after the best interests of its own nation’s subjects and not about those in other countries, whose forefathers could have belonged to them in an entirely different timeline. If that were so, India, the land of the Aryans, the Pandavas and the Kaurvas would be waging a war with the rest of the world, or perhaps, be giving birth to another Hitler, in order to gain back all of its lost territory or rioting ceaselessly in order to “discover” the superior race in a country with its extremely vast diversity.
As Obama said earlier, Russia isn’t showing its “greatness” by putting on a show in Ukraine, but nor is the rest of Europe along with its allies doing anything productive enough to prevent the inhumanity being carried out. The need of this hour is to mutually come up with diplomatic solutions. Both of these parties should be open to dialogue and dispute but without the intervention of any kind of military operations, legal or illegal. The first step towards finding a solution would be to end the violence to aid the voiceless people of eastern Ukraine who have been suffering mercilessly under grievous policies. The next should be to devise UN peacekeeping ground forces to deal with the militants and demilitarise the border. Perhaps, the people of the much disturbed Ukraine then vote to decide which side of the border they want to belong to. Their houses and other properties should be rebuilt and maximum humanitarian aid should be provided.
By- Jaya Singh
