Foibles and follies in Ukraine, tensions with China

The war in Ukraine -Europe’s latest war is into its 365th day. Columnists of major US and European news sites have from time to time expressed surprise that there could be an ongoing war in Europe in this day 
and age.  

In reality, the war in Ukraine had its origins in the aftermath of the 2014 coup in Ukraine, which overthrew the elected pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych in November 2013 when he (Yanukovych) refused at the last minute to sign an association agreement with the European Union and decided instead to join a customs union with Russia, which was offering loans, trade advantages and continued access to natural gas at below-market rates.

Opposition parties with ties to the west mobilized demonstrations which ended in the overthrow of the elected president.  

The coup itself was openly supported by the US and West European countries which helped install a puppet regime on the borders of Russia.  

The regime change prompted the outbreak of a civil war in the east of Ukraine, between Russian-backed separatists and the US-backed Ukrainian army. As the war between the separatists and the Ukrainian government troops heated up, in February Russian troops invaded Ukraine in February 2023.  

Russian leader Putin has said Russia will deploy its new Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile, nicknamed “Satan 2”, as well as introduce hypersonic missiles and new nuclear submarines.  

It looks as if, it’s back to the bad old days where European monarchs in West and East European countries waged war on each other and the people suffered.  

In Ukraine itself, the UN Human Rights Chief put the number of Ukraine civilian casualties at 8,006 dead & 13,287 injured.   Statista.com reveals in total, more than eight million Ukrainian refugees were registered across Europe. A World Bank report released on Wednesday (22 March) puts the cost of Ukraine’s recovery and rebuilding at $411 billion over the next decade, with the cost of cleaning up the war rubble alone at $5 billion.  

On February 9 it was estimated the number of Russian troops killed and wounded in Ukraine was approaching 200,000.  

To cripple Russia’s economy the NATO bloc including the US sanctioned Russian oil. But the sanctions backfired, and countries outside the West including India and Saudi Arabia rejected the NATO-imposed sanctions. They continue to purchase Russian oil.  

Bloomberg reports Saudi Arabia -the world’s top crude exporter and a significant seller of petroleum products- imported almost 2.5 million barrels of diesel-type fuel from Russia in the first 10 days of March, far more than at any other time in the last six years.  

The product is refined in Saudi and resold in the open market. NATO bloc countries are in fact purchasing Russian oil refined in Saudi Arabia to meet their domestic needs, at higher prices.  

NATO countries, to meet the shortfall in domestic needs of petroleum products, are also forced to purchase oil and gas from the US at much higher costs.  

The ongoing war in Ukraine has made the world a more unsafe place.  

As though this was not bad enough, three Anglophonic nations -the US, the UK and Australia- are now opening a new front in Asia via a security pact -AUKUS.  

The UK also attempted to draw India into the grouping but was unsuccessful. The unspoken aim of AUKUS is ‘to contain the rising power of China’ and to maintain a ‘free Indo-Pacific region’.  

The question which arises is free for whom?   
Asia has suffered immensely under imperial rule. We do not need our enfeebled old imperial ruler and its buddies back ‘to ensure our freedom’. Nor do we need the ‘opium wars’ of old re-enacted under different guises.  Asia is home to the majority of the peoples of this world, and as mentioned earlier suffered immensely at the hands of imperialist powers.  

The war wounds of Afghanistan are fresh for all to see. The use of chemical weapons in Vietnam by the US is part of Asian history.  We cannot forgive or forget the nuclear bombing of two civilian cities in Japan when that country was on the brink of surrender.  

Referring to the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the late US president General Eisenhower (military leader during WWI), in 1963 said, objected to the use of the atom bomb. In his own words, ‘I told Stimson (US Secretary of War) it was not necessary to hit them (Japan) with that awful thing’ (A-bomb)  

The peoples of our region DO NOT NEED such protectors. Our request is, to go back to your own countries and take your nuclear subs and other war-like devices with you.