24th February 2022, the war in Ukraine started with the invasion of Russia. Or at least with the desperate trying of an invasion to so-called “re-claim”Russian territory’s. As this is a conflict happening right at the border of Europe the EU nations and their allies have taken clear positions in this war. There is no support for the aggressor Russia. The war has to stop and the original territory boundaries need to be put back in place.
In the course of last year, the support for Ukraine became diverse. Food, infrastructure, refugee programs, money (hundred of billions), education and recently weapons.
While you can argue, that there is a huge demand for humanity support and reconstruction, I am more and more puzzled about the delivery of weapons.
At the beginning Ukraine and the allies were talking about munition. The next level had been guns, then we went to tanks. In the meanwhile Ukraine is supported by the most modern software tools to have their strikes done more intelligent. These days EU starts to deliver fighter jets to Ukraine. The next escalation, I guess, would be an active participation of non Ukraine soldiers in this war. But, still, everybody is threatened by the potential war with a nuclear power nation.
Political parties of all different orientations have agreed in the meanwhile, that the ultimate support of Ukraine with weapons is the right thing to do (the far left wing parties excluded).
I never experienced a war. The last 80 years had been a phase of no war – at least not a world war. The common sense was, that war is the wrong thing and has proven many times, where this military spiral leads to. The last two world wars, started by Germans, are ultimate proof for this. Millions dead, millions suffer, decades of reconstruction. And all wars have one thing in common. They start rather small and then accelerate. The arguments for the war are also always the same. One party wants to take in something, the other party claims this can only be stopped with equal weapons.
I do believe we have to respect the independence and freedom of countries and people. And we have to make sure that this respect is honored by everybody. At the same time I do believe, that the educated world must have developed better “weapons” than just striking back with military options and escalating to the threat of a nuclear strike. Is it that far politics got til 1962 and the Kuba crises?
Fundamentally, I believe Russia need to be fought. But not by killing more people. Sanctions, isolations, economic separation will bring everybody down, if the world would be united and really push these things through. This isn’t naive, it is a different way where you need people with courage.
