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5 Reasons to Keep Focusing on Ukraine
Prior to the war in Ukraine, I was focusing a lot on the region. I took classes on Russian history, watched documentaries on Ukrainian history, followed the Maidan revolution’s impact on Ukrainian politics, and so forth.
When the war broke out, I became obsessed with the news cycle, as many of us were. I took books out from the library on Putin, read biographies, listened to a few podcasts on the conflict per day, and couldn’t stop watching DW News. Many of us focused on this conflict obsessively in the initial days of the invasion. But it is important to focus on it even now when the fighting has dwindled.
I also wrote an article on the importance of focusing on Ukraine for the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, Canada’s leading independent think-tank, based out of Ottawa, the capital. My points were simple, but remain true even more so today, so I will reiterate them.
Ukraine has already been in a conflict with Russia since 2014 as a result of Russia’s annexation of Crimea and its backing of pro-Russian separatist groups in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine. From 2014–2022, more than 14,000 lives were lost and 2 million people were displaced.
These tolls are rapidly worsening due to Russia’s latest and radical escalation of aggression.
