A Recap of Events And Update on First 25 Days of War
If you had read our last article, you might have read the following passage:
India At War believes there might not be a war after all. President Putin will go for the Gas-money via Nord Stream II. President Biden, President Macron, and Chancellor Scholz will be praised for de-escalation. President Macron may win the election in France, and the Presidency of the EU is supposed to be held this year. President Biden may gain some points on his ever-falling approval ratings, which has plunged to the ground.
India At War doesn’t want war, but if it breaks out, we will get the detailed news.
The world was hoping for a peaceful de-escalation, but on February 24th, 2022, around 7 AM IST, Russia Invaded Ukraine, and the tiniest expectation for peace was lost. A video became viral that claimed that Putin signed the attack order at midnight Moscow time. But this invasion currently holds a large number of matters in jeopardy.
Points To Be Discussed:
The Russian invasion is moving a little slower than anticipated, it’s been more than 100 hours, but Kyiv is still under Ukrainian control. Massive loss of lives was counted on both sides, and more than 3.5 Million Ukrainian, had fled the country while around 30,000 Indian citizens, mostly students, were stuck in Ukraine. President Putin had ordered the Nuclear Deterrent Forces to stay alert at the highest levels, and President Volodymyr Zelensky is not backing down. Both sides do not want to talk, but the effort is still on. NATO and EU sent weapons and moral support to Ukraine but no Boots on the ground. UN is trying some show-offs, but as usual, no real deal. Sanctions are decimating Russia’s Financial Systems. India is stuck at the biggest diplomatic pickle after independence from the United Kingdom. Rampant Propaganda and Unstoppable Fake News Circulation is also fighting for the countries. And last but not least, Prime Minister Imran Khan held a meeting with President Putin.
We will discuss all the points with an independent perspective of this situation.
Ukraine’s Point of View:
The point of view from Ukraine is very multipolar. But we will try to get them all one by one.
Ukraine used to be a part of the former USSR, but after its independence from the communist regime, it is now fighting for its existence as a sovereign country. Ukraine used to be the third strongest Nuclear-Armed nation. But back on December 5th, 1994, singing the Budapest Memorandum, Ukraine gave up their Soviet-Era Nuclear Weapons that included several Bombs and Missiles to Russia. The nuclear contingent of Ukraine included more than 1700 warheads, among them 130 UR-100N Single Warhead Missile and 46 is RT-23 MIRV ICBMs. Ukraine also gave up its fleet of 33 Tu-95 Heavy Bombers. Now at this point, we can safely call it the most explosive mistake in the history of the world after 1945. But the Budapest summit was also a crucial turning point for the current events. On the same day, Russia and the United States of America, along with the United Kingdom, promised to protect Ukraine under any foreign threat or aggression as Ukraine will remain a non-aligned state or buffer state and will not join NATO. But on February 24th, 2022, Russia, one of the signatories, attacked Ukraine while NATO was fighting or handling the situation as “War From Home” mode by ‘Deploying’ Sanctions.
The Russian Attacks, or some say aggression came after severe warnings from Russia. Russia warned Ukraine and especially incumbent President Volodymyr Zelensky on joining and becoming a NATO member. But President Zelensky ignored the Russian concerns and, to date, tried to become a member of NATO.
As the War started, Ukraine was left alone by the NATO members. US President Joe Biden said, “We will not deploy American forces on Ukraine. We will defend every inch of NATO territory.” That was the biggest blow to President Zelensky as he was jumping, roaring, giving fiery speeches, and all the table-thumping based on a thought that the NATO members would come and join the fight with him as he would become a NATO member anyway. But as the War broke out, Ukraine’s entry to NATO was still denied in the European Union.
The NATO member states like the USA, Germany, France, Poland, United Kingdom are ‘Helping’ Ukraine by offering their military equipment to the Ukrainian people. Yes, the Ukrainian People who have never ever held a gun in their life will go to War against the highly trained Russian Forces with the most-advanced US or Germany or France-made weapons that require intense training to become proficient users of that particular weapon. One of the guards, a member of Ukraine’s Civil Militia, said to a news channel that he would do his best to defend the city, but he only managed to fire 16 rounds in his entire life.
Ukraine’s Armed Forces fought vigilantly for the first 4-5 days, but now they are almost depleted. Russia claimed they had successfully destroyed all Ukrainian Military bases and the storage depots by hitting them with missiles. Ukraine denied all the Russian claims but, on the other hand, put ‘Martial Law’ into action, preventing all the males between 18 and 60 from leaving the country and getting enlisted. These new civilian recruits were given more than 25,000 newly acquired Automatic Weapons and Shoulder Launched Missile systems to fight against the Russian Military. But so far, everywhere we can see the Russian Dominance. As of March 8th, 2022, Russia has taken more than 40% of Ukraine’s Territory, excluding Crimea. But President Zelensky is still waiting at Kyiv and hoping for a miracle to happen and win the War. President Zelensky may have referred to the Winter War between Finland and the former USSR during November 30th, 1939 – March 13th, 1940, or at the early days of World War II. But Finland had Simo Haya. But Ukraine so far had the ‘Ghost of Kyiv’ who turned out to be ‘Fake.’
Ukraine is wining the Propaganda, False Narrative, and Fake News Wars. But in-ground, they are losing big time. President Zelensky had asked and slammed the world leaders to help Ukraine, but ‘Supportive Words’ never had worked to win a war.
The Eastern Ukraine, where the major Russian Ethnic people lived, are openly supporting Russia and fighting alongside the Russian Forces against the Ukrainian Forces to make things even further complicated.
Ukraine claimed that they have destroyed 500 tanks, more than 81 aircraft, 60 helicopters, several artillery systems, and more than 15,000 Russian Soldiers as of March 20th, 2022. Their Air-Force and Ground Forces are doing fantastic jobs. Etc. Etc. But the reality is far from the claims. Although the Ukrainian forces have successfully captured many Russian Troops and Pilots from a few crashed Planes and Helicopters so far, they are being treated very humanly as per Geneva Conventions. That is the greatest gesture one Military can show the other as they are fighting a war, not for personal causes but as their leaders want.
On March 2nd, Russia launched a 64KM long just 4 days later. The war broke out. They have arrived in less than 10KM of Kyiv without any Arial Threats or any military blockade or Resistance from the Ukrainian side.
On some occasions, Ukraine had used several Turkish-made drones and loitering ammunition to destroy Russian forces and equipment. But that’s not enough to stop the forward march of the Russian forces.
World Leaders including German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, French President Emanuel Macron, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennet, Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammed bin Salman and even the Dictators of Belarus and China had requested both sides for mediation and immediate cease-fire. Even President Zelensky is ready to talk to President Putin, and three rounds of talks had already taken place in Belarus, but neither of them wants to negotiate and propose unacceptable terms. Ukraine wants immediate cease-fire and withdrawal and wants to proceed on becoming a NATO member, while Russia wants Ukraine to give up Crimea, Luhansk, and Donetsk and the resignation of President Zelensky.
On the other hand, President Zelensky is still in Kyiv and ordering his forces to fight back and refused to leave his country even when the USA, UK, and Poland offered him a safe passage.
If you think Zelensky is a Hero. You need to think about that again. He was an Entertainer, a Comedian who worked in a movie where he became an Accidental President. But the people of Ukraine also voted for him in real life. With Zero Knowledge of Politics and Full Knowledge of ‘Television and Media’ control, he is doing nothing but ‘Photo-Ops’ and ‘Fiery Speeches,’ which gullible people of the world are taking like ‘Old Testament. President Zelensky knows that he cannot fight against Russia alone and hide in a safe Bunker while claiming Russia wants him and his entire family erased from the face of the earth. He is asking civilians to take up weapons against Russia, and if they get killed, which they are getting in large numbers, President Zelensky shouting ‘Human Rights Violation.’
President Zelensky also ordered the Arrest of his Predecessor and current Leader of Opposition, Petro Poroshenko. But the Supreme Court of Ukraine intervened, President Poroshenko took up weapons and wanted to fight against Russia. President Poroshenko’s and his party members’ arrest clearly indicates that President Zelensky is also an Authoritarian Dictator. President Zelensky is also trying to censor the media outlets severely. After 14 days of War, it seems President Zelensky is on a Suicide Mission, and he may survive by fleeing at the end, but the general Ukrainian Population will continue to perish. The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) had executed a negotiator who went to Belarus for Peace Talks. The SBU marked Denis Kireev as a Russian Spy. This tells the amount of frustration in the Ukrainian forces and the President. So far, three attacks on President Zelensky had already happened after the invasion. But he is still refusing to quit.
Many Indian Students who have fled Ukraine also stated that the Ukrainian Forces stopped them from leaving, used them as Human Shields against Russian Troops, and did not provide any help as India did not side with Ukraine in this War. So far, 22,500 Indians had been successfully evacuated from Ukraine and brought back to India by air, while more than 30 Million Ukrainians had left their country.
But after 14 days of War, President Zelensky has stated that Ukraine was not going to join NATO and asked President Putin for immediate de-escalation and cease-fire. Now, after 25 days of War, Zelensky is still stating patriotic monologues and issuing statements on ‘No Surrender!” Russia is bombing Ukrainian cities and turning them into rubbles. So far, more than 3.5 million women and children have fled the nation. Now EU and UNHRC suspect that these vulnerable people may face human trafficking and various abuses in the states where they have taken refuge.
Basically, Zelensky is out of his mind. He is challenging the Russian forces and President Putin when he gets some ‘so-called support,’ and then again, he cries for de-escalation and cease-fire when Western support is unavailable. Meanwhile, more Ukrainians suffer due to his incompetence and almost zero understanding of the situation and foreign policy.
Russia’s Point of View:
Russia’s Point of View is much clearer than NATO, Ukraine, or India, which has taken a non-aligned move.
Long before the dissolution of the USSR on December 25th, 1991, the leaders had shown their wish to join NATO and end the hostilities. According to some reports, the final try came out in 1987 and 1990 by former USSR President Mikhail Gorbachev when he visited the USA. After 1991, when Vladimir Putin became President, he also expressed his wish to join NATO and end all the hostilities among the European countries in 2000, when George W. Bush Jr. visited Russia. But just like his father, George W. Bush Sr., then-President George W. Bush Jr. also rejected the possibility of Russia joining NATO.
On the Warsaw Pact, it was verbally promised by NATO that they would not expand further into the East. But after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, NATO didn’t keep its promise and expanded rapidly. After the dissolution of the USSR, 14 new member states had joined NATO even Russia condemned and criticized the actions.
Then in 2008, when Georgia, North Macedonia, and Ukraine wanted to join NATO, Russia invaded Georgia and declared South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent territories and recognized them. This was a huge warning for all Eastern European nations who wished to join NATO. But, that didn’t stop Albania and Croatia in 2009, Montenegro in 2017, and North Macedonia in 2020 from joining the alliance. After 2009 joining Russia knew it was a few days when Ukraine and other states like Moldova could join NATO anytime.
Russia took 5 years of preparation as there was a Pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych. He fled Ukraine when Russia started to annex Crimea. It can be stated that President Yanukovych was a Russian puppet who kept Ukraine away from NATO, and as he was expelled due to the charges of Election Frauds, Russia took advantage and let the world know of its power once again.
It took Russian forces about a month; between February 20th and March 26th, 2014, Crimea was annexed, and NATO or Ukrainian forces couldn’t do anything to stop it.
Then in 2020, on the awake of the COVID-19 pandemic, North Macedonia joined NATO. It was a wake-up call for Russia.
Russia started border building up throughout the Ukrainian borders and Belarus-Ukraine borders from February 2021. When the border build-up started, NATO or Ukraine didn’t pay much attention in public, but they knew it was the beginning of the invasion.
This year, when the Beijing Winter Olympic or the ‘Genocide Promotion Games’ started, Russia and Belarus started a joint Military Exercise. That escalated the tensions wildly. President Putin met with his counterpart Xi Jinping during the games. It has been said that President Xi asked Putin to delay the invasion till the end of the Olympics. The Winter Game’s success and/or Taiwan’s ‘Peaceful’ Reunification is the only way left for President Xi to win over the next CCP party congress to be held in November this year. President Xi assured Russia of supporting the invasion, but since day 2 of the invasion, when the sanctions started to fall in over Russia, the CCP seemed to flee from the scene and leave Russia alone.
Before the invasion on February 24th, Russia recognized the Donetsk and Luhansk regions where the Pro-Russian Separatists were active as two new Independent Nations. That made Russia split Ukraine into three separate nations without firing a bullet. This was a great move by President Putin. Then Ukrainian Forces started attacking Donetsk and Luhansk, which gave President Putin to react and send the Russian troops by calling it a ‘Protective’ or ‘Peace-Keeping’ operation to protect Russian Origin People and ‘Genocide’ rhetoric.
Russia currently wants to install President Viktor Yanukovych as its Puppet and overthrow President Zelensky’s regime. Russia also wants complete recognition of Donetsk and Luhansk, while Ukraine also stops claiming Crimea.
Currently, Russia has deployed around 130,000 or 10% of its total active land forces to take over Ukraine.
But Russia has some other plans too.
Russia wants Ukraine to turn on the North Crimean Canal to allow irrigation and water supply to Crimea. As Russia is mostly Frozen Tundra, agriculture and food security are always under a question mark. But Crimea is very fertile, so it can help produce enough food for the Russian people.
Secondly, Ukraine has the largest Nuclear Powerplants in Europe. Ukraine also exports a huge amount of electricity to neighboring states. If you watch the Russian invasion closely, you can see that Russia is strategically targeting the cities with nuclear reactors; Russian forces have almost decimated Kharkiv, taken control over Chernobyl, and now Zaporizhzhia, the largest Nuclear Powerplant in Europe. Russia also knows that these powerplants hold a huge portion of Nuclear Materials to further expand its nuclear arsenals.
Besides these two, Ukraine is also rich in rare earth elements, including Lithium.
Apart from all these, in the last 30 days, President Putin had also stated on in better words Threatened the world with Nuclear War and put his Nuclear Deterrence Forces on high alert.
Russia is also shut down its Air Space from March 8th, midnight. These are some indications for escalations of War.
On the 12th or 13th Day of War, Russia found at least four Bio-Weapon Laboratory spread across Ukraine and took control over them. Russia claimed these Bio-Weapons were manufactured in Ukraine by direct funding from the USA. So far, the USA didn’t deny the evidence provided by the Russian. WHO asked Ukraine to destroy all the viral samples before Russia takes control over other labs?
The same WHO didn’t stop China from spreading the Wuhan Virus and rebranded it as COVID-19 as “The name was hurting the feelings of the Chinese People.”
Now, new evidence also claims that Dr. Antonio Fauci was directly involved in making the virus that started the global pandemic.
On March 20th, 2022, President Putin suspended around 1000 of his staff in fear of getting assassinated. Previously President Putin held a public meeting where he asked the Russian people for more support for the Military. This discission can also result from threats he received from an American Senator, Lindsey Graham, former UK Special Forces officer, and a Russian Oligarch living in the USA who also asked the Russian citizen to assassinate President Putin. The Oligarch is allegedly willing to pay a reward of 10 Million USD to anyone who can kill Putin. That is just adding more fuel to the War.
USA and UK’s Point of View:
Whatever, President Biden says, the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson repeats with ‘British Accent.’ The ‘Superpower’ and its ‘Sidekick’ are fighting Russia with Sanctions and waging financial wars. More than 50 multi-national companies, including Mastercard, VISA, McDonald’s, Nike, Adidas, and others, have stopped their services in Russia and Belarus. The sanctions over many Russian business persons and businesses and the freezing of their offshore assets have made crippling effects on the Russian economy. But they are fighting against Putin. After Russia was banned from the Banking System or SWIFT for international transactions, President Putin is looking for options, and China has one. Russia even offered to sell its oil at a massive 25% discount per barrel to India and China. While the USA asked UAE and Saudi Arabia to increase oil production, they have ignored their calls. Now President Biden is planning to lift Oil Embargo from Iran and Venezuela. What a great discussion by President Biden. He is single-handedly destroying all the efforts made by his predecessors to isolate the dictatorships and also bring them closer to each other. As Joe Biden repeatedly had said, “He will protect every inch of NATO territory.” And “There will be No Boots in the ground.” made the perfect threat to President Putin to work out his plans. But not all the nations of NATO and EU are not agreed with the plans.
USA, UK, and other NATO members are pouring their money and weapon systems for Ukraine, but you need someone alive and capable enough on the Ukrainian side to use them. Ukraine is losing too many men in the wars. When Vice-President Kamala Harris was asked about the Refugees, and if the USA would take them in, her marvelous laughter can give you more than a straight answer.
Basically, to fund the slowed-down US Weapon industry, President Biden is now trying to make Ukraine a European Afghanistan.
USA and UK are trying to bring the clash in the UNGA to vote against Russia. And they are winning, but the results are not binding, and Russia can always use its veto powers to stop anything.
NATO Member States’ Point of View:
NATO members like France and Germany are trying their best to de-escalate, President Macron and Chancellor Scholz are calling President Putin, President Biden, and President Zelensky for peace. But so far, nothing has happened except more bombings, exodus, and destructions.
France and Germany, several other EU nations, and the UK imports their 30% Oil and Gas from Russia. On the one hand, USA and UK are imposing sections on the Russian oil and gas, while Germany and France are importing more oil and gas from Russia, even they have scrapped the Nord Stream II project. Then Russia stepped in and stopped supply from Nord Stream I. This just made the oil prices jump from around USD 95 to USD 140 in no time. As in the unusual Spring, the snow is still falling over the large parts of Europe, including France and Germany, the two major powerhouses of mainland Europe; the Russian invasion is successfully dividing NATO.
Romania and other nations wanted to help Ukraine by offering their jets and weapons, but the USA had asked not to do so. As President Biden believes that might trigger the next world war.
The European Union’s Point of View:
The European Union gave its top platform to President Zelensky and gave him a stand-up ovation for another fiery speech. But again, their support was limited to just words. The EU had also conducted a vote to include Ukraine as a new member state, and Ukraine had won the poll by a landslide. But then the EU said they cannot bring someone new while the new member is fighting a war, even though the War is for their existence.
The EU and US reporters had also introduced several racial points and marked the Syrian or Iraqi refugees as lesser human beings.
The EU nations support weapons, money and moral support, and television propaganda with President Zelensky’s Speech Shows, but again, there has to be someone in Ukraine alive who can use the weapons and money.
CCP’s Point of View:
President Xi and Putin had a meeting during the Beijing Winter Olympics 2022 or the Genocide Games. Here President Xi allegedly asked Putin to delay the invasion by a few days as it might affect the games and take away the limelight from Beijing to Kyiv. And Putin had fulfilled Xi’s request. Xi and Putin allegedly also made a deal that if Putin attacks Ukraine, China will remain silent, and Russia will remain silent when CCP attacks Taiwan.
For the first few days, CCP showed its support to Russia by both Verbal and Voting in the UN and abstained from voting. CCP Spokespersons were very vocal and supportive of a Russian invasion.
But now, CCP is back in the act it does best, Backstabbing.
CCP or China has a system that can bypass the SWIFT system with its indigenously built CIPS. But so far, CCP is not helping out Russia with it. Rubble is also falling deeper as VISA and Mastercard also stopped working for Russians.
Russia also asked CCP for Arms and Ammunition supply, but again, CCP didn’t even bother to respond, let alone help Russia.
Russia also offered oil at a cheaper price to China, then Xi and Biden held a meeting on March 19th, 2022, and that thing also looked scraped.
If you add these all, you can find CCP has left Russia alone fighting its War with Ukraine.
On the other hand, Xi is already preparing for a Taiwan invasion.
India’s Point of View:
The Point of India was simple, “We Will Take No Sides.” At the beginning of the War, our priorities were to bring back our students and other citizens stuck in the warzone. India launched ‘Operation Ganga’ and sent Four union ministers to the neighboring countries to assist in prioritizing coordination with local authorities. Hardeep Singh Puri, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Kiren Rijiju, and General V.K. Singh were sent to Hungary, Romania, Moldova, Slovakia, and Poland. Scindia was responsible for Romania and Moldova. Indian Air Force and several private airlines worked day and night to bring more than 22,500 people out of the warzone. India also brought Pakistani, Nepali, and Bangladeshi citizens. The Pakistani citizens got their way out by chanting “Vandemataram” and “Bharat Mata Ki Jay” and holding the Indian Flag. India, Ukraine, and Russia held a meeting to a cease-fire on different cities for 4 to 6 hours to create a safe passage for Indians to get out of there and go to safer places. Although Indian students have reported severe cases of Racial Discrimination, and as India did not vote against Russia, some students also received a beating and torture. Some students had to walk miles under freezing temperatures to cross the borders. Some even stated that when they reached the border, the Ukrainian authorities didn’t let them pass or again tortured and used racial slurs against Indian and African students. Some students also needed to pay ransom or bribes to cross the borders.
These weren’t expected from the Ukrainians as thousands of students go there to study every year. But what can we say, since the 1990’s Ukraine has been helping our enemy number 2, Pakistan, with arms, ammunition, and heavy weapons? Despite India’s constant requests to Ukraine, they sold advanced T-80 Tanks to Pakistan. Then in 1998, when our Nuclear Tests were done, Ukraine had led a group of 25 nations to condemn India, but their words for Pakistan were quite lost.
But now, as all Indians except a few who stayed there to fight against Russia, as mercenaries and medics, India can do whatever is beneficial for the nation.
Along with China, India was also offered a 20-25% discount on oil prices if India buys oil from Russia. While CCP was discussing the plans, Indian ONGC bought 3-Million-barrel oil from Russia. India bought it by using the Russian Rubble and Indian Rupees direct exchange.
India not only needs Russian oil but weapons too. India imports most of the weapons, including fighter jets, tanks, assault rifles, and their parts from Russia. If that supply line
Pakistan, Iran, Syria, and North Korea’s Point of View:
On the day of the invasion, Pakistan’s soon-to-be former Prime Minister Imran Khan went to meet President Putin or, in better words, went to beg for gas, oil, and money. But as soon as he arrived at the airport, he stated, “So much excitement,” his statement has almost killed his diplomatic channels with the West and Arab World. But as he is suffering from a No-Confidence Motion on the Pakistani Parliament, his problems will soon disappear.
On the other hand, North Korea openly supports Russia and tests new missile launchers. North Korea also planned to launch a series of satellites to spy on USA and EU.
Syria and Iran are always with Russia for several reasons. But now, Syria has allegedly sent more than 40,000 fighters or terrorists to Ukraine to fight for the Russian cause.
What the Future Holds?:
At this point, the future looks really grim. The Incompetency of Joe Biden, The Ultra Aggressiveness of Putin, The Mockery of Zelensky, The Impracticality of Macron, Scholz, and EU, Silence of Modi, and Cunningness of Xi may bring World War III a reality. We can only pray for peace and duck.