NARA'S NOTEPAD

 

WAR IN UKRAINE

It was 24 February 2022. In the early morning, while I was going through the world news on my I pad, I found shocking news of Russia invading its neighbouring country Ukraine. The huge tanks of the Russian army were marching towards the borders of Ukraine to bombard Ukraine cities. Experts in world politics and other national leaders announced that the conflict may come to an end soon by 4 or 5 days. But the expectation did not work. Even today the invasion continues and it has become a full-fledged war. Ukraine war is the everyday headline in every TV channel and newspaper of the world.

Because of this war, we come to know more about Ukraine, a country we know very little about before. Today we came to know who the President is. What are the important cities of Ukraine? What are its adjoining countries, what are its agricultural crops and many other things like these. Information is flashed every day through all kinds of media as breaking news.

The President of Ukraine is Volodymyr Zelensky who was a professional comedian. Scott Morrison, the Prime Minister of Australia called Zelensky the lion of democracy. Zelensky dresses simply. He wears a T-shirt and pants. He does not wear a formal Presidential dress. We all see him as a simple man whenever he addresses a gathering. He talks softly, politely and diplomatically. On the contrary Vladimir Putin, the President of Russia, well dressed in a suit, always serious in looks and talk appears on our TV screens. The Australian Prime Minister called him a war criminal.

Kyiv is the capital of Ukraine - a smaller country by area (603,500 sq km) as compared to Russia (17,098,286 sq km). Also, we came to know about its big cities Kharkiv, Lviv, Mariupol, and Odesa. The adjoining countries are in a fix to receive the escaping Ukraine people – children, adults and elders – both healthy and unhealthy are Moldova, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary Romania and Belarus. These countries are worried. They wait for the war to end. Recently Joe Biden the President of the USA visited Poland and talked to the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) leaders. He said that Putin is a butcher and went back.

Ukraine is the biggest supplier of wheat and sunflower oil to many countries of the world. In fact, India is one of the countries that import sunflower oil for edible purposes. Since the war began the prices of edible oil in India soared up. The businessmen are making good money on their old edible oil stocks. Intelligent people!

 It is a pity to see the Ukraine citizens from various cities leave their homes and all their earnings marching towards nearby countries as refugees. How sad it appears. They are innocent people of the nation. Because of the war they are put into such a sad situation.

Ukraine is one of the European countries that have many medical institutes that attract students from various countries including India. Thousands of boys and girls, who fail to get admission in Indian medical colleges, take loans from banks and move to Ukraine year after year to get medical degrees for becoming a medical doctors. Unfortunately these students were caught into this crisis. The Government of India (GOI) by sending air force airlines and passenger airlines to evacuate Indian students who suffered a lot during the crisis. Those students except one or two who were killed in the bombing are in India safe. But what will be their future? The GOI is planning to make some arrangements for them with Indian medical colleges. I considered that it was a timely help the GOI did for the young boys and girls of our country.

Why this war? I started thinking. Ukraine has become a good friend of the USA that’s against the policies of Russia. Moreover, Ukraine wanted to join NATO and the European Union. These moves were against the policies of Russia. These activities of Ukraine will harm Russian interests. So Russia wanted to suppress Ukraine by military action. There may be other unknown reasons about which I am not aware.

The UN assembly met many times. The French President, German Chancellor, British Prime Minister personally met Vladimir Putin for peaceful settlement. No positive results came out them. Also India had a virtual meeting both with Putin and Zelensky. The fear is that it may turn into World War III. Russia also conducted many rounds of peace talks with Ukraine. But none of these conciliatory talks was fruitful. President Xi of China is keeping away from this crisis. Prime Minister Modi wants a neutral stand. The war continues. The people of Ukraine suffer day and night. Many of them died. Soldiers of Ukraine and Russia also died in huge numbers. How long this will continue? I do not know... NARA