By Johan Abdu
Reporting Assistance by Radwan Farraj
Russia’s sudden invasion of Ukraine has shocked the world, leaving many to see images similar to World War II-torn Europe.
On Feb. 22, Russian forces were given the go-ahead to invade the Ukrainian republics of Donetsk and Luhansk for a specific mission to “demilitarize” and “denazify” Ukraine, CNN reported. Days later, forces attacked areas around and near the capital city of Kyiv, as many Ukrainians were forced to act quickly to fend for their lives.
“It’s hard not to be impressed by the courage of individual Ukrainians and the remarkably impressive performance of the Ukrainian leadership,” said Robert “KC” Johnson, an author and history professor at Brooklyn College who specializes in American politics and diplomatic affairs. “The last decade has featured aggressive challenges to the international liberal order – from Russia, from China, from Iran.”
U.S. President Joseph Biden has reiterated his concerns and efforts to aid Ukraine with economic assistance through Congress while constantly keeping an eye over the conflict. Johnson complimented the Biden administration’s responsibility of spreading information widely around the world in response to Russia, but claimed their handling of foreign affairs is “something of a mixed grade.”
“Biden’s badly botched handling of the withdrawal from Afghanistan hovers over contemporary international relations…it’s not hard to imagine Putin assuming that if Biden were willing to leave behind American citizens and Afghans who risked their lives for the U.S. military, the administration likely would do little on behalf of Ukraine, where American lives weren’t on the line,” said Johnson.
As for what is happening on the ground in Ukraine, Brigid O’Keeffe, a BC history professor who has studied modern Russia and the history of the Soviet Union for years, calls Putin’s regime “intolerant of truth and miserably afraid of its own people’s voices.”
“As a historian, I am all the more appalled by the fact that Putin has unleashed a torrent of lies and historical falsifications to undergird his ostensible ‘justification’ for war — a war that he is aggressively lying to the Russian people about,” said O’Keeffe. “Putin has amply demonstrated that he is willing to inflict suffering to Ukrainians, the people of Russia, and the wider world in his bid to conquer Ukraine, rewrite history, and nurse a series of historical grievances that he has obsessed over for decades.”
It is unclear how effective the United States’ involvement in the invasion of Ukraine will be in the coming months, but Johnson believes this conflict is very detrimental to the future of worldwide foreign affairs.
“The invasion of Ukraine continues a troubling pattern, showing that we’ve moved beyond the post-Cold War era to a period that’s likely to be more dangerous for the United States and European democracies,” added Johnson.
Both parties will have the ultimate say as to when the bloodshed will end, but the damage is irreversible.
“Putin’s threat to Ukraine is a threat to us all,” said O’Keeffe. “I am heartsick and worried for Ukrainians who are suffering incalculably right now…and for Russians who are against this war, some of whom have shown extraordinary bravery in risking arrest by Putin’s police forces and the grave consequences they will face for doing so.”
For some Brooklyn College students, the ongoing conflict incited concerns of a potential third world war.
“And at first I thought it was a joke, one of those World War III jokes that people make all the time, but I looked it up and it turns out it’s true,” said Nathalie Karam, a junior at BC. Karam could not help but be reminded of January 2020, when many believed that a conflict would break out between the U.S. and Iran. “It gave me flashbacks of that, you know?” Karam said.
Worried about the possibility of the U.S. becoming more involved in the conflict with escalating tensions, Karam noted how she is concerned for “how global politics will be changed by the end of this.”
“We should not interfere because if we do enter, we have missiles, Russia has nuclear missiles,” she opined.