By Don Aguiar.
Mumbai, March 3, 2022: The Russian attack against Ukraine that started on February 24 will have a significant impact on the Catholic Church. There have been many wars around the globe since World War II, including in Europe — especially in the 1990s. But Russia’s aggression against Ukraine is different for both political and military reasons
Not since the tense standoff between John F. Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev some 60 years ago, have a US president and a Russian leader confronted each other in quite such a dramatic fashion as we are witnessing today. This is also because of the religious and theological undertones of Russia’s war against Ukraine, which capitalize on the schism within the Eastern Orthodox Churches and the quasi-schism within Catholicism. Ukraine occupies a central place both in Orthodox Christianity (marked by Moscow’s tensions with Kiev and with Constantinople) and in Catholicism (marked by the sometime uneasy relationship the Byzantine or Greek Catholic Church — sometimes disparagingly called “Uniatism” — has with Rome).
The consequences of the war now raging in Ukraine will likely have repercussions for decades not only in the international order and in ecumenical relations, but also in the intra-ecclesial Catholic community. In the context of the globalization of the American “culture wars”, the ideologues of religious resentment see the Russian attack on Ukraine as the continuation of Church politics by other means. Throughout his pontificate, Pope Francis has had to spread his message of unity of the one human family in an increasingly disrupted global order. If what is happening now is not the start of a new Cold War, it is clear that we are no longer in a post-Cold War world order, either.
The Ukraine-Russian crises will also have a significant impact on the Indian Economy which can be impacted through the trade channel, the finance channel and the price channel. India’s combined export to Russia and Ukraine is less than 1% so that’s not a major problem. The problem lies in supply side issue and therefore commodity process. Global food prices will continue to rise sharply. Will this increase in food prices coupled with the increase in crude prices pose an imminent threat via very high inflation for India?
There was an interesting video from CBS 60 Minutes on YouTube about that very thing but also a scary reminder of the shortsightedness of the world planning when it comes to foreign policy, logistics and infrastructure. Our democracies do have a problem thinking farther ahead than 4 years until the next election, and that is to the detriment of us all, right?
As you know, there have been attacks across Ukraine in recent days, not knowing where the next one will be. No one feels safe. Kiev is under siege. Millions of Ukrainians have spent the last days and nights on the road in shelters, cellars, and hundreds of thousands fleeing. Meanwhile brave soldiers and citizens fight for Ukraine’s freedom. Many started with families, young children, or elderly parents, leaving everything behind. Meanwhile, guns crackle behind them, the sound of bombs is heard… The military assault has already resulted in a shocking number of deaths.
I must admit that the world has just been divided into two. The West sees the Russian entry into Ukraine as an invasion while the East sees it as a liberation for their safety to keep the countries located between the West (NATO) and those to the East (Russia) neutral. The West especially the Americans have really paid much attention to it, as it serves American selfish interest and quest for the energy market which they had started to loose from 2016 onwards. Thus all these hype and drama had to be created to compel Europe to cut down their increasing energy dependency on Russia.
NATO was formed to counter the Soviet Union (USSR). Since USSR dissolution in 1991 – NATO technically has no purpose whatsoever. USSR broke down into many splinters and pieces and Russia was one of the biggest pieces, yet was weak in every possible way.
Thus NATO became a Bully of Europe. Using US Financial Muscle, it kept on expanding and bullying Europe. Ex-President Donald Trump openly declared that he wanted to be over and done with NATO on September 2016 before the Elections.
Russia has been threaten by NATO’s continuous eastwards expansion. Every single country adjourning Russia has being engulfed by NATO by brazenly supplying them weapons and sending troops for training.
Although Russia was assured as early 1999 by Bill Clinton that NATO would soon no longer be relevant and agreed that NATO had no business expanding eastwards. Yet NATO, with later American Presidents Bush, Obama and Biden, kept on expanding and supplying weapons to country after country as disbanding NATO or keeping NATO quite would lead to huge loss in defense orders and contracts.
For Russia, Ukraine was the last straw. It was the large border between Ukraine and Russia and if Ukraine became a NATO member, would mean complete encirclement of Russia by NATO countries.
Russia protested strongly for several months and asked America to address the Ukraine issue and give Russia assurances that Ukraine would not be given NATO membership and that Weapons or Missiles would not be placed in Ukraine. America refused. Russia then opened dialogue on the Minsk Accord signed with Ukraine but they too refused to honor.
Although a Diplomatic solution was very easy. All NATO had to do was – Defer the Ukraine issue until Russia and Ukraine had had their dialogue and resolved their differences. It was the sanest, most prudent to do to save face. But NO!!!!!
They (America & NATO) neither gave Security Guarantees nor did Ukraine honor the Minsk Accord with Russia. Instead they kept on going to the press everyday saying, “Putin Bad….” So Russia did what they had to do….. America & NATO are entirely responsible for getting Ukraine in this situation…. the World at the brink of World War III.
The European Union must recognize that its dilatoriness and subordination of the strategic element to domestic politics in negotiating Ukraine’s relationship to Europe contributed to turning a negotiation into a crises. Foreign policy is the art of establishing priorities. The Western Media has been cleverly demonizing Putin and most of our media channels are just blindly following it. If some solution or comparable elements is not achieved, the drift towards confrontation will accelerate to a World War III should the Americans flex their financial muscle and freeze Russian assets.
Far too often the Ukrainian issue is posed as a showdown: whether Ukraine joins the East or West. But if Ukraine is to survive and thrive it must not be either side’s outpost against the other – it should function as a bridge between them.
This war like development has Indian students mostly studying medicals in Ukraine not being allowed to cross the border and facing discrimination, asked for bribe, assault and third degree torture for no fault of theirs while “white” Ukrainians are allowed. They are not only not allowed to cross the border but Indian boys faced third degree torture as criminals.
The students are not the first examples tragedies India’s faulty higher education system can produce, nor probably will it be the last. Why do so many medical students go abroad to learn their craft, on populations and medical systems which are so vastly different from what is needed in serving their future case load in India? Many reasons – the primary one being the exclusivity of medical education, which is only accessible to the privileged and wealthy of Indian elite.
One is deeply disturbed by the plight of Indian students and the harassment, racism, assault and the torture they face by the Ukrainian police while trying to leave the country. In an ongoing humanitarian crisis, discrimination is the last thing people should worry about. What is happening to India’s young citizens should lead India to introspect.
India not voting against Russia and abstaining the UN vote just like China and UAE might be India’s foreign policy – for this do the Indian student deserve this third degree torture by Ukrainians, Polish and other surrounding countries at their borders?