Such a simple answer to a straight forward question that speaks volumes about who the people of Ukraine are with their strength and resilience that they possess and why we must now all look to emulate, donate what we can, and advocate to who we can, our politicians and fellow citizens on their behalf.
This answer was to a question that was brought up by an extraordinary mother with 3 young children (who thought her self not extrodinary at all), she has a 4 month old baby and they were all presently sheltering in Kyiv in Ukraine. She was being interviewed on the radio today to listeners in the UK. Her husband is working on a checkpoint and she has only seen him once since the war broke out for 20 minutes when he visited the shelter too.
She talked about the collective of the people in those shelters how they took things only day at a time. Things we take for granted like food, life and liberty are all now in the balance for her and her family and the fellow Ukrainian citizens that seek shelter with her in Kyiv.
They don’t plan what is going to happen next week as they don’t know if there shelter will have been bombed by then or even if they will still be alive (those were her words and thoughts not mine) They also cry a great deal together but somehow find things to share to laugh about together too.
Today this young mother went above ground to the shops to try and get some food and managed to get some bread and bits and pieces she also came across a sweet shop that was still open with two young girls serving at the counter who she bought some sweet and chocolate from and this is where she asked the young girls behind the counter the simple question “girls why are you here?” And they answered her by saying “because this is our home”.
Again I will now ask you, why are you here? The same answer ricocheting right back to me again. Which is, because it is our home.
Putin says the war is a way to protect Russian speaking Ukrainians. As people in Ukraine try for three days on the run now, to flee for their lives through so called peace corridors, they are then shelled for their attempts to save their lives by the Russian artillery. This is a war where Putin protects Russia speaking Ukrainians by bombing them, so that they then rest in peace on the blooded cities, towns and villages of Ukraine, this is very dark stuff.
A war where Putin intensifies emotion in those he lies to on his own side by stating that the war is one to denazify Ukraine. Why he needs to bomb innocent civilians the elderly, women and children while the world films and watches at the horror of these atrocity I really am not too sure.
The world like a oil and natural gas addicted junkie is unable to commit to cancelling its orders for oil and gas from Putin just yet. What could someone like Putin do if left in charge of a major military power that also just so happens to have one of the world’s largest nuclear arsenals, well we are in the process of finding out.
There is not enough oil or money in the world to pay off apologist for his regime so that more enlightened human beings don’t see straight through the propaganda it now spouts.
On March 8, 1917 women textile workers held a demonstration in Petrogad, Russia that eventually engulfed the whole city, demanding “Bread and Peace”—an end to World War I, to food shortages, and to Tsarism. Such a repeat protest would be illegal in Russia today as since 2014, holding a demonstration without the permission of authorities, even a peaceful single-person picket, is punishable by a fine or detention of up to 15 days, or up to five years in prison if it is the third breach. Why worry about a peaceful protest if you’re Putin if you can jail those that try to oppose you or protest about anything?
In this day and age in Ukraine, Putin’s fight for peace is like screwing for virginity, and with that in mind this could potentially lead to a global conflict which ensures we all get screwed. Putin is now beginning to put his cards on the table and explain to the world where he is coming from and what he is capable of and the world still appears to be in denial about this, like a victim unable to comprehend the horror that it is being threatened to be inflicted upon it.
The world is gambling with Putin that the Ukraineain and Russian blood and sacrifice of lives at Putin’s political alter of beliefs will quench his thirst and appease him a little longer.
But no bloody thirsty tyrant in the history of the world has ever had their thirst quenched by the blood of others. There are not enough bodies on this mortal plain that could be offered at the altar of Putins desires and beliefs to satisfy his thirst for vengeance and wrath upon the rest of the world.
Putin has now gone on record stating the west’s sanctions are akin to an act of war on Russia and that any country that implements a no fly zone over Ukraine would be considered “participants in a military conflict”.
Although it feels like there is only one man bating the world to inflict World War 3 upon it and no one else calling for it but Putin? He has hit Ukraine hard and fast its only 10 days since the start of this madness and he still does not describe what he is doing to his own people when he patronises them with lies and misdirection on state TV in Russia as a war in Ukraine but a special military operation. Russians now face 15 years in prison for posting ‘fake news’ about Ukraine war under new law.
With the whole of the Russian state media and government officals are producing and posting constant fake news about the war then they are guilty of the very crimes that the state imposes on its own citizens. This legislation is like the mad ramblings of a demented Tzar trying to stifle truth and the road map to peace on his own people. If the truth was allowed to be heard Putin knows it would be deafening and disruptive to his road map to potential global war.
Who would have thought just a few weeks ago that after having nearly tamed corona virus and with countries starting to try to implement a road map to mitigate climate catastrophe World War 3 was on the horizon and not just that but that we are only minutes away from a potential nuclear catastrophe like we had not been threatened with for over 50 years.
Growing up when reading about potential problems for the future one threat that was talked about was the concept of climate change wars. This being a situation where nations and people would be increasingly fighting for ever decreasing resourses and when I look to Putin and how his actions in the Ukraine are unfolding that is exactly what this is a violent and deadly grab for resources on his own boarder in the name of reunification of Ukraine to Russia. People are calling him mad which he might well be. But he is also cold and calculated and has so much to lose if his war goes wrong for him that I fear what is still yet to come for Ukraine and the those next in Putins sights.
He will surely see the West’s sanctions and his now global status diminished to that of leader of a pariah state as an act of war and further evidence in his own mind that the west has always hated Russia and it does not matter what he does he just can’t win . His political judgements are increasingly looking like the actions of a gambler on a heavy losing streak risking it all and yet having still not hit rock bottom. There are very little factors in place to stop him from creating more devastation for Ukraine and the planet and continue to role his dice and inflict his decisions on others again and again and again.
A leading academic called Harald Welzer , author of Climate Wars: Why People Will Be Killed in the 21st Century, stated back in November 2017 that “My belief is that we will see a renaissance of violent conflict in the 21st century, and that many of these conflicts will spring from climate change.”
A professor at the University of Flensburg in Germany, Welzer studies the cultural and political implications of climate change. His book, first published in 2012.
Twentieth-century wars were fought over land, religion, and economics. But Welzer argues that the wars of the 21st century will be fought over something quite different: climate change, and the shortages of water and food that will come from it.
“Ideology will always be a surface-level justification for conflict, But if you look deeply at the source of future conflicts, I think you’ll see a basic resource conflict at the bottom of it all.”
So with that in mind I don’t see Putin as just mad but I do see him as an incredibly dangerous individual with a large arsenal at his disposal and a lot to lose and nearly nothing left to gain. This is all very dark stuff that has been rattling around in my head for the last week. There are very few positive outcomes from this scenario should it have a hint of truth within it at all.
One of the biggest game changers for this conflict that has yet to state how it will act under the circumstances is that of China. China could embolden Russia to continue along a potentially catastrophic path or could be the peacemaker. Though Russia is on the brink of having lost global power and influence due to its invasion of Ukraine, China on the other hand is a powerful nation with more to gain from a thriving and more stable and peaceful world than it has to gain from one at nuclear war with itself. Putin might get to a point where he feels that he has nothing to lose by escalating a war to a nuclear crisis put China and President Xi Jinping will not be in such a hurry or have the belief and conviction concerning the necessity to set the world on fire.
China though having tried and failed to set out a coherent diplomatic position in the days following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, is now attempting to position itself as a potential peacemaker to end the war.
That position has not entailed acknowledging that Russia has invaded Ukraine, let alone condemning it. But as China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, told his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba in a call on 1 March, Beijing stood ready to support negotiations to reach a political settlement. According to the Chinese foreign ministry, Kuleba said he was willing to move forward with talks and “looked forward to China’s mediation efforts for the ceasefire”.
This horific real life story is in no way over and continues to unfold before our very eyes.
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