What may be the cost of “vanquishing” Putin as Deputy PM Freeland demands?
This week PeaceQuest Cape Breton essayist Sean Howard looks at the disastrous humanitarian impacts of the war in Ukraine: be it nuclear war or famine.
The NATO-Ukraine-Russia war is being waged far from the Global South. But in its direst global humanitarian consequences it is a European earthquake poised to trigger cascades of hunger and deprivation, certain to kill many more people in the South than the North. As UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned the Security Council on April 5:
Far beyond Ukraine’s borders, the war has led to massive increases in the prices of food, energy and fertilizers, because Russia and Ukraine are lynchpins of these markets. It has disrupted supply chains and increased the cost of transportation, putting even more pressure on the developing world. Many developing countries were already on the verge of debt collapse, due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and a lack of adequate liquidity and debt relief, stemming ultimately from the unfair nature of our global economic and financial system. For all these reasons, it is more urgent by the day to silence the guns.
Six weeks later, Guterres warned the war “threatens to tip tens of millions of people over the edge into food insecurity, followed by malnutrition, mass hunger and famine, in a crisis that could last for years.” Yet while many in the North acknowledge the peril they are content to pin sole blame on Evil Russia’s Mad Tsar, whom they insist must be weakened and even toppled, however long and loud the guns may roar, and however many (others) pay the price. In the frankly maniacal words of Canada’s Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland:
…we all now understand that the world’s democracies—including our own—can be safe only once the Russian tyrant and his armies are entirely vanquished.
Freeland is entirely wrong, for while almost all Global South states, including many democracies, have unequivocally condemned the Russian invasion, most sanely stress— as do some less delusional European capitals—the need for a diplomatic solution (a messy peace, which is on offer), rather than a decisive military one (a glorious victory, which is not).
(Cover: KYIV, UKRAINE – Feb. 25, 2022: War of Russia against Ukraine. A residential building damaged by an enemy aircraft in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv. Via Shutterstock)
Putin needs to be stopped and face the war crimes against him. How to do this safely for the other countries not to be destroyed is needed? He doesn’t even care for his Russian people and destroys everything in his way. I’m afraid that he like a rattle snake will seep into other European countries and do the same. We are striving to keep our world stable and safe. His relationship with China is very suspicious. If Putin attempts to use nuclear warfare he will also self destruct and possibly the whole planet earth. A peaceful solution is vital but difficult to find the best way to move forward with this.
Freedland knows very little in truth. She is dismissing the fact that the US fostering and financing of the illegal Kiev coup in 2014 was the start of this whole deadly miasma. Constant provocation of Russia by the US, the UK nd other NATO nations caused the special ops into Ukraine. The bad joke who is the current Ukrainian president isn’t helping the situation. He reminds me of the former Georgian president who though that he could attack breakaway provinces and expect the US to full his fat out of the fire. Needless to say it didn’t happen. Continuing to arm Ukraine is simply prolonging the death and destruction. The Ukrainian bad joke refuses to negotiate an end to the destruction. Canada should refuse to send deadly arms to Ukraine.
If Zelensky would not have decided to leave the Russian Federation and
join NATO – we would have no war now!
After all, the other 20 or so of the Federation members seem quite satisficed and remain partners. I was in Armenia a few years ago on business and saw what was built during the 70 years of membership in the USSR! Maybe poor quality but always better than what they had under the Czarist regime!