Unless you have completely cut yourself off from the world’s media sources, you may have heard the not-so-chill news that Vladimir Putin, president of Russia, has invaded Ukraine.
Russia’s military has been slowly snuggling up to Ukraine’s border since October of last year. Putin issued a set of demands in order to withdraw his troops from the border, including not allowing Ukraine to enter the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). For those of you who aren’t poli-sci majors, NATO is a military alliance between a handful of powerful nations who agree to back each other up in the event that one of them is faced with an armed attack. Putin still sees Ukraine, a former Soviet republic, as an illegitimate country that rightfully belongs to Russia, and Ukraine’s alliance to NATO threatens this Russian nationalism.
In the early hours of February 24, the Russian military moved into Ukraine by land, air, and sea in a “special military operation.” Putin released a speech that threatened, “whoever would try to stop us and further create threats to our country, to our people, should know that Russia’s response will be immediate and lead you to such consequences that you have never faced in your history.” I don’t know about you, but I’m getting pretty tired of living through world-changing events, like the biggest war in Europe since World War II.
The UN has reported that over 600,000 Ukranians have fled their home for bordering nations in Europe, like Poland, who have welcomed these refugees with open arms — unless they are of African descent, in which case they are turned away at the border. The thousands of international students from Nigeria who were studying in Ukraine were prevented from leaving through the use of police force at the border and were denied passage by train. Also, men between the ages of 18 to 60 are banned from crossing borders and are expected to fight against the Russian forces.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, is making an example of himself as he refused evacuation from his country, telling the U.S. that “the fight is here; I need ammunition, not a ride.”
While Putin’s forces swifty captured key areas like the Chornobyl power plant and the city of Melitopol, it appears that he greatly underestimated the powers of Ukraine. Civilians have taken up arms, as rifles are distributed and Molotov cocktails are prepared. Zelensky even invited foreigners to come to Ukraine to help them fight, with hundreds of requests pouring in to come to Ukraine’s aid.
It would be nice to see the same kind of support towards Israeli-occupied Palestine; a girl can dream.
The hypocrisy of Western powers has blatantly come to light over the past week, as the U.S. has condemned Putin’s invasion and war crimes, yet committed similar terrors. The U.S. has sold bombs to Saudi Arabia that been have used in air-strikes to kill countless civilians (including children) in Yemen, despite Biden promising to cease “relevant arms sales.” Just last month, the U.S. military was responsible for the killing of at least 13 civilians (six of whom were children) in a Syrian airstrike, yet when Russia takes similar actions it is condemned as a “a brutal assault … without provocation, without justification, without necessity.”
The Western media’s flagrant racism is also something to behold, as CBS reporter Charlie D’Agata lamented over Europeans suffering: “This isn’t a place, with all due respect, like Iraq or Afghanistan that has seen conflict raging for decades. This is a relatively civilized, relatively European — I have to choose those words carefully, too — city where you wouldn’t expect that, or hope that it’s going to happen.” Ukraine and Russia have had tensions since Ukraine’s independence from the Soviet Union in 1990, three decades ago.
Ukraine’s deputy chief prosecutor David Sakvarelidze told the BBC that “it’s very emotional for me because I see European people with blue eyes and blonde hair being killed.”
You know what’s emotional for me, Sakvarelidze? The 12,000 Syrian children killed and wounded over the past ten years and the fact that Poland refused to take in refugees from a war that affects non-white, non-Christian people.
I’m not trying to hate on countries who are trying to help refugees fleeing from an unimaginably frightening scenario. I am in no way saying that a child’s death is any more or less devastating depending on their skin colour. I’d just like the same amount of concern from the media and backlash from Western powers when it is non-white countries who are under attack and it is brown and Black refugees who are in need of sanctuary.
Image: Yehor Milohrodskyi / Unsplash
Andrea Sadowski is working towards her BA in Global Development Studies, with a minor in anthropology and Mennonite studies. When she's not sitting in front of her computer, Andrea enjoys climbing mountains, sleeping outside, cooking delicious plant-based food, talking to animals, and dismantling the patriarchy.