(Photo credit: WikkiCommons)

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine cannot be called unexpected. Troops had been building up for month, while the West has been supplying lethal defensive weapons and military training to the former Soviet Republic for years. The provocations were all there, aided and abetted by the gradual encroachment of Nato and the EU into Moscow’s back garden.

The current crises started way back after the fall of the Iron Curtain, with questionable breaches of the Post-Warsaw Pact. East European countries such as the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland joined the transatlantic defence organisation at a time when it wondered if it had any longer a future role. Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, and Slovakia joined in 2004, and Albania five years later. Ukraine remained as one of the major front states

Yet, whatever the rights and wrongs, there is no justification for Russia’s invasion of a neighbouring sovereign country. Among western nations, there has rarely been such unanimity, an outpouring of public support and empathy for the besieged people of Ukraine.

As tanks headed for Kyiv, European and American governments imposed immediate sanctions and boycotts, while many of their companies severed trading relations with Russia. The country’s banking system was targeted along with billionaire oligarchs. Caught up in the show of solidarity, civil society called for more action to offer shelter for the millions of fleeing refugees.

Not only have there been public demonstrations of support, but in all walks of life during the first month of saturation media coverage.

Much of the reaction was political, with an emphatic agenda identifying Vladimir Putin as the culprit, as if Western leaders had been waiting for decades for the opportunity to oust him from power. While governments, including Britain, had been exceedingly happy to attract the immense wealth of oligarchs for years, even allowing slush-funds into the country to interfere with their internal affairs. Yet suddenly, it was found that personal greed was perhaps not quite the way to run a country, even if not quite admittedly.

Set in motion by the response, were so many lessons to be learned from the latest war, which, unusually, was not instigated by the West or its allies, as has been the vast majority of recent times, be it in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya or elsewhere, though mostly in Muslim countries. With the momentum came the exposure of realms of hypocrisy.

How could the US and UK complain about foreign invasions when they had been responsible for most in recent history? Wasn’t there just a touch of double standards in singling out Putin but never themselves nor their allies for launching military invasions?

And what of current conflicts, where people are still being slaughtered? Who has spoken out for the Palestinians all these years suffering at the hands of Israel or the Saudi-led interference in a destructive war in Yemen? Perhaps there was a difference in the value of lives?

The war in Ukraine was claimed to be the first in Europe since World War Two, as if to justify the discriminatory focus without being reminded of the conflicts linked to the break-up of Yugoslavia and the massacres that took place in Bosnia. But, weren’t the victims mostly Muslim as well, and even if Caucasian?

One cannot help but think, though that public expression has been against the cynical loss of life and destruction caused by all wars. Perhaps the Russian invasion ought to be the last. Haven’t we learned anything from history? The example must be set for the future that previously banned Palestinian flags ought to be flown in football stadiums and not just Ukrainian ones. That expression of support and empathy has to be for all oppressed and besieged people around the world.

Unfortunately, this may not quite align with the intentions of many governments. One cannot help but feel that while they are happy for Putin to be singled out, the same course of action would not necessarily follow against rulers considered to be allies.

Will it just return to more blind eyes being turned? As it is, though, the killing in Ukraine must stop. At such a crucial time, peacemakers are needed. The world has become such a dangerous place if more is to be risked.

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