Why our outrage means nothing in the conflict between Ukraine and Russia
As most people know, a flood of protests, invasions, police cruelty, and appeasement have been hitting the headlines. The travesty of Ukraine, specifically, has shed light on how other nations react in dangerous situations. Our politicians ruffle their feathers, denounce, and make their anger known to a disobeying country. Many countries, including Canada, are involved in this process, carefully avoiding anything that would bother Putin in any meaningful way. Military intervention was ruled out because, in the minds of our politicians, diplomacy wins every time. Thus we are left with rhetoric, pure and simple, to express our anger while we wait for this situation to blow over.
The Czech President referenced the 1940s, when the world powers denounced and then appeased Germany after the invasion of Poland, and left them to fight on their own. Not until France was being invaded was military intervention sought. So, the question remains, does diplomacy work in this case, where Russia has apparently broken international law by invading into the Crimea region of Ukraine? In order to answer this question, let’s rewind to the events of the fall. The Ukrainian citizens, more so the Western portion, were demanding for their President, Yanukovych, to sign an agreement to become a part of the European Union. Yanukovych was more inclined to sign an agreement with Putin for financial assistance. This agreement would seal Ukraine into debt with Russia. Protests broke out, but failed to alter the President’s mind. Protests got louder and louder until Yanukovych authorized force and interrogation tactics through riot police.
This sparked an all-out war between the people and the government, resulting in injuries to both sides, and even death. Now we have a government killing its own people, which garnered outrage from Western countries and other parts of Europe, but again, denouncement and pointless angry politicians were the result.
Did that change the president’s mind? No, but what did was the growing revolution of the people and their overthrow of the Yanukovych government. Under no circumstances did they receive the help from other countries which they were so desperately asking for. We had protests in Canada for some sort of political action, and all that could be mustered were lowly visa restrictions against Yanukovych and his lackeys from travelling to the U.S. or Canada. What good does that do when they can just visit Russia for their needs and luxury? We have provided no aid to the people, medical or otherwise, and no sort of mediating third party to protect the people and the government from each other. All we have managed to provide are a few words of strength.
These events all took place in the span of a few months, but in that time, the people of Ukraine suffered, day in and day out, to stand up for what they believed in and achieve a Ukraine not under the control of Russia. Some days they made progress, and others they suffered casualties, but they achieved the first step to their goal. In these gruelling months, our leaders of the Western nations could only provide a slap on the wrist to the president of Ukraine and hope to see a difference. Diplomacy works slowly and is capable of making progress, but in the hands of our politicians, it is nothing but a laughable joke – similar to when our parents scold us for our behaviour, and we just give them a sardonic smile and move on.