Seventy-nine days into the war!

Tomorrow will be the eightieth day of the Russian ‘Special Military Operation,’ as they have labelled the war on Ukraine. There seems to be no let-up for now. The West, led by the U.S., still believes that Russia can be engaged in a long war and exhausted eventually into a defeat. They seem to be little bothered regarding its impact on Ukraine, with many cities now in shambles.

Unlike the Russian invasion of Crimea, which ended in two weeks, none, especially the U.S., for strange reasons, wants the war to end anytime soon. Money and arms are pumped into Ukraine, edging them to fight Putin, now equated with Hitler. The Ukrainian civilian casualties seem not much considering the duration of the war. My doubts about a greater game plan to engage Russia into a deeper and longer battle, eventually forcing the EU nations to step in, seems to be the idea emanating from the talks over granting an out-of-turn NATO membership to Finland and Sweden. All the 30 NATO members must approve new memberships, which can throw surprises.

Both Finland and Sweden have been militarily neutral, and Finland shares a 1340 km border with Russia, which will expose Russia to the NATO forces twice as much. The Russian president. Putin unsurprisingly has warned of dire retaliatory measures if Finland and Sweden are inducted into NATO.

I’m against wars and the adverse impact on civilians, especially the older people and the children. The West controls the media, and therefore the negative reports like a lacklustre Victory day Parade in Russia, the failing health of Putin, and even the talk of Russian forces rebelling may not be surprising. The sinking of a boat or an aircraft, burning down a few tanks, or a couple of most unfortunate people dying from missile attacks hit the headlines and the prime-time TV news, which could be one-sided.

The fact is, Russia has a free run in Ukraine, bulldozing its way and pulverizing cities and infrastructure, whatever it crosses. The West could be looking at great chances of rebuilding, running to hundreds of billions of dollars. No EU leader wants the war in their country and are even hush-hush about meekly agreeing to the Ruble payment for the oil and gas supplies, which still accounts for 43% of EU imports. Much to the chagrin of the economic pundits, the sanctions have not made the Russian currency weak, despite claims of $900 million daily losses for Russia due to sanctions.

While I feel sad for the Ukrainians, their president Zelenskyy seems to have deeply faltered in pursuing this war, thinking he would eventually win. He will not because Putin is not facing a wall yet. Life is not critical, and food is not in shortage in Russia. In the form of the United Nations, the global order has proved to be an unworthy and meaningless organization. A complete revamp of systems must begin as soon as the war ends.

It is no more possible for the U.S. to label some countries as villains, mustering the support of their allies to punish as they did in Iraq, Libya, or Iran. Instead, it must find ways to co-exist with opposing political views and philosophies, which would augur better for the world.

Sampath Kumar
Intrépide Voix