Blog post #1
Cole Forbes
PS 101
Dr. Jenkins
3/10/22
The recent onset of the Russian-Ukrainian war has seen the international community scrambled to help Ukraine in any way possible without causing a third world war. So far the two most prominent way the united states and the international community has attempted to help Ukraine has been through supplying weapons and through economic sanctions on the Russian Federation; both of these actions have crippling repercussions for the Russians and hopefully assisting Ukraine. For many years the EU and United States have refrained from supplying weapons to the Ukrainian military, out of fear of escalating tensions with the Kremlin. This changed soon after the recent large-scale invasion of the country with almost all NATO nations supplying new and advanced weapons to the Ukrainian defense forces which have crippled the Russian advance into the country.
While the influx of arms directly assists the Ukrainian people's desperate fight against Russia, the most effective aid has come in the form of the unprecedented economic sanctions unleashed by most of the Western world upon the Russian federation. These sanctions early saw Russia removed from most of its financial institutions abroad, most notably with the Swiss breaking centuries-long neutrality and removing them from their famed banking system (SWIFT). This move was unexpected by the Russians and everybody else but was soon followed by the united states and EU in a suit. While the large financial institutions of Russia are being attacked the personal wealth of the Russian oligarchy is now being targeted with the foreign holdings of Russian billionaires being seized by the United States, Canada, the Eu, and Australia. Additionally, Russian ships can no longer go to port anywhere in Europe, Canada, or the United States this goes in tandem with the sanctions on Russian oil imports which previously was the biggest contributor to the Russian economy. All of these sanctions culminate to delete the Russian economy to a level no one could have predicted, for example as of March 10th the value of a singular Russian ruble is 0.007 USD now compare that to the estimated value of a V-Buck an in-game currency from the popular children's game Fortnite valued at 0.0125 USD, just shows how far the Russian economy has buckled as a result of these sanctions with a make-believe currency from a child's video game being a more stable currency than that of the Russian states.
While all of these actions have been appreciated by the Ukrainian government it maintains that currently what it needs most from the US and NATO and its allies is assistance from Russian bombing by establishing no-fly zones over Ukrainian airspace and in establishing negotiating humanitarian corridors with the Russian military so civilians can be evacuated out of warzones. But establishing a no-flight zone over Ukraine would put the united states in a difficult position with Russia because this would be seen as a direct escalation of the conflict and could potentially widen the conflict on a global scale. However, establishing a no-fly zone over Ukraine would directly assist in preventing the deaths of civilians from increasingly indiscriminate bombing by the Russian air force. The Russian military has become increasingly bogged down in what they predicted would be a blitz lasting multiple days has turned into a grueling grind with no foreseeable end in sight and seeing bombing civilian targets as an easy way to break the fighting resolve of the Ukrainian people. Most recently this has been seen in the bombing of the occupied maternity hospital in the besieged city of Mariupol which happened just the other day and yet to produce a causality count but regardless is a war crime, additionally, the Ukrainians argue for a no-fly zone over Ukraine because Russia has been using a plethora of "dumb" bombs which are conventionally un-guided munition but also have been reportedly using cluster bombs which are banned under the Geneva convention due to the unnecessary damage it causes to civilians. Despite all of this however is unlikely that NATO/ The United States will act on these requests despite the benefits to the citizens of Ukraine but then again if they did do it, it would be seen as a confrontation and escalation to the Russian government and could cause a nuclear holocaust killing millions which the Russians promise would be the reality if the Western world continued to interfere in Ukraine.