RUSSO-UKRAINIAN WAR: WHEN WILL IT END

"Mankind must put an end to war or war will put an end to mankind"(John F Kennedy).

     All war is a symptom of man's failure as a thinking animal. It is forbidden to kill, therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets. There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people. When the rich wage war it's the poor who die. 

It is no longer news that Russia invaded Ukraine, crossing their military borders and starting a battle that might if proper precautions are not taken usher in a third  world war. On 24th February 2022, Russia President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin ordered his troops to invade and occupy parts of Ukraine in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War which had begun in 2014. The invasion have resulted in 

 tens of thousands of death from both sides and instigated Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War 11. About 8 million Ukrainians were displaced within their country by June and more than 8.2 million had fled the country by May 2023.

     For months before the invasion, Russian troops had been concentrating around Ukraine's borders while Russian officials repeatedly denied plans to attack Ukraine. On 24 February 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a special military operation to support the Russian controlled break away republics of Donetsk and Luhansk, whose military forces had been fighting Ukraine in Donbas conflict. He said the goal was to demilitarize and denazify Ukraine. The invasion has been met with widespread international condemnation. The United Nations General Assembly passed Resolution ES-11/1 condemning the invasion and demanding a full withdrawal of Russian Forces. The International Court of Justice ordered Russia to suspend military operations and the Council of Europe expelled Russia. Many countries imposed sanctions on Russia and on its ally Belarus and provided humanitarian and military aid to Ukraine. Protests occured around the world; those in Russia were met with mass arrests and increased media censorship. Over 1000 companies left Russia and Belarus in response to the invasion. The International Criminal Court (ICC) opened an investigation into possible crimes against humanity, war crimes, abduction of children and genocide during the invasion, issuing an arrest warrant for Putin in March 2023.

     After the Soviet Union (USSR) 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 dismantle the nuclear weapons in Ukraine left by the USSR. In return Russia, the United kingdom (UK) and the United States (US) 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 arrangements, including treaties of alliance". 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, the war in Abkhazia (1992-1993) and the first Chechen War(1994-1996). Russia's president Vladimir Putin claimed NATO members had promised in 1999 not to let any Eastern European country join, but this is disputed. After the 2008 Bucharest Summit, Ukraine and Georgia sought to join NATO. The response from NATO members was divided, with Western European countries worried about antagonizing Russia. NATO refused to offer Ukraine and Georgia membership, but also issued a statement agreeing that this countries will become members of NATO one day. Putin strongly opposed the NATO membership bids, and Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavron said Russia would do everything it could to prevent their admittance.

In March and April 2021, Russia began a major military build up near the Russo-Ukrainian border. A second build up followed from October 2021 to February 2022 in both Russia and Belarus. Members of the Russian government repeatedly denied having plans to invade or attack Ukraine. Putin's Chief national security adviser Nikolai Patrushev, is known for his anti-western views and said that the West was in an undeclared conflict with Russia. Russia's updated national security strategy, published in May 2021, said that Russia may use forceful methods to thwart or avert unfriendly actions that threaten the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Russian Federation. Sources say the decision to invade Ukraine was made by Putin and a small group of war hawks or siloviki in Putin's inner circle including Patrushev and minister of defense Sergi Shoigu. During the second build up, Russia demanded that NATO sign a treaty barring Ukraine from ever joining NATO, and demanded multinational forces be removed from NATOs Eastern European member states. Russia threatened an unspecified military response if NATO followed an aggressive line. These demands were widely seen as non viable; Eastern European states had willingly joined NATO for security reasons, and their government sought protection from Russian irredentism. A treaty to prevent Ukraine joining would go against NATOs "open door policy" despite NATOs unenthusiastic response to Ukrainian request to join. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg replied that "Russia has no say on whether Ukraine joins, and that Russia has no right to establish a sphere of influence to try to control their neighbors". NATOs official policy is that it does not seek confrontation and NATO and Russia had co-operated until Russia annexed Crimea.

     France President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz made efforts to prevent war in 2022. Macron met Putin but failed to convince him not to go ahead with the invasion. Scholz warned Putin that heavy sanctions would be imposed should he invade Ukraine. Scholz in trying to negotiate a settlement, also told Zelensky to declare neutrality and renounce aspirations to join NATO; however, Zelensky said Putin could not be trusted to uphold such a settlement. On February 21, Putin made an address announcing that Russia recognized the Russian controlled territories of Ukraine as independent states: the Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic. The following day Russia announced it was sending troops into the territories as "peace keepers" while the Federation Council of Russia authorized the use of military force abroad.

On 24th February, before 5am Kyiv time, Putin made another address, announcing that Russia was launching a "special military operation" and "effectively declared war on Ukraine".

He said the purpose of the operation was to protect the people of the Donbas in the Russian controlled break away republics of Donetsk and Luhansk. He falsely claimed they have been facing humiliation and genocide perpetrated by the Kyiv regime. Putin falsely claimed that Ukraine's government were neo Nazi's under Western control, that Ukraine was developing up military infrastructure in Ukraine to threaten Russia. He said Russia sought the demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine. Putin said he had no plans to occupy Ukraine and supported the right of the Ukrainian people to self determination. Within minutes of Putin announcement, Russian missiles struck targets throughout Ukraine, and Russian troops invaded from the north, east and south. Later an alleged report from Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) was leaked, claiming that the intelligence agency had not been aware of Putin's plan to invade Ukraine.

             RUSSIA WAR HISTORY

The Russian military and troops of its predecessor states in Russia took part in a large number of wars and armed clashes in various parts of the world: starting from Princely squads, opposing the raids of nomads, and fighting for the expansion of the territory of Kievan Rus. During it's long history, Russia have waged countless wars and conflicts, quite often victoriously. But if some of its victories are consigned to oblivion, the fruits of others still impact on the present. They've fought hundreds of wars right from their inception to this day.

From the struggle against Mamai in 1374 to the Great Northern War in 1700 down to the Russo- Turkish War in 1768, the Russo-Japanese War in 1904 down to World War 11 in the late 1930s. Russia have always been a militarized country, it has done this, in fact, for it's own survival. Flanked by Europe and Asia, Russia have experienced three major invasions in it's history: by the Mongols in the 13th century, Napoleon in 1812, and Hitler in 1941. In Russia, survival of the state itself has been a primary concern historically. Now the "Russo-Ukrainian War".

Is this also a self defense expansion mechanism or is Putin and his Russian nation looking for means to control Ukraine and it's citizens? Claiming he is protecting the minority Republics "Donetsk and "Luhansk" from aggressive aggression from a peaceful and democratic Ukraine. Russia have been in a dozen number of wars and it's now deposited in their DNA to fight and shed innocent blood even when it is uncalled for.

The world should rise and put an end to the war before it's escalation triggers in a third world war that will usher in nuclear and atomic weapons; bringing an end to mankind.

                PLEASE STOP THE WAR.