How the West Brought War to Ukraine: Understanding How U.S. and NATO Policies Led to Crisis, War, and the Risk of Nuclear Catastrophe

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Real Change is a non-profit organization advocating for economic, social and racial justice since 1994. Irrespective of the strong political rationale, the move is likely to steer the country further away from accountability for human rights violations,’ says Sagoo. This exodus, coupled with a national ‘mobilization’ conscription drive in 2022, has also led to hundreds of thousands of Russian citizens fleeing the country, according to estimates. Dr Vines says: ‘Non-alignment is much more comfortable than being pigeonholed as part of a Western position – or indeed an Eastern position. As a UN Security Council member entrusted to maintain international peace and security, there was a sense of déjà vu with the US-led invasion of Iraq, and Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014.

And their publics support such an approach, as demonstrated, for example, by their reluctance to consider problems relating to Ukraine to be any of their business.They are the only ones to hold such a view of all of the US, Russia, the EU, Great Britain, and their own country. Observers have been surprised by the strength of Ukraine’s resistance, resilience, and national cohesion. In fact, the war has accelerated actions which were ‘unthinkable’ before the war says Kataryna Wolczuk, associate fellow in the Chatham House Russia and Eurasia programme, such as the fast-tracking of Ukraine’s EU candidate status within three months. The shift has been mirrored across much of Africa too says Chatham House Africa programme director Dr Alex Vines, highlighting that most abstentions (51 per cent) condemning Russia’s invasion at the UN came from African countries, marking a partial resurgence of what was many African nations’ default position in the Cold War. The war could also be seen as the first long-term, sustained conflict where all the currently available uses for drones are integrated into combined operations on both sides, according to Keir Giles, senior consulting fellow in the Russia and Eurasia programme, who says: ‘That’s also true for cyber – and in fact the nexus of cyber and drone operations.

However, almost a third of respondents in Russia did not select any country as having a real democracy. And my background is I have an undergraduate degree in European History from the University of Pennsylvania. But the reality is that Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine confirmed the renewed centrality of American power to Europe – with billions of dollars spent maintaining the war effort, which has sustained unity across the Atlantic on sanctions and diplomatic positions towards Russia and given a new lease on life for Western-led institutions such as NATO and the G7. The US has its protectionist Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) offering large subsidies for domestic production of electrical vehicles and other ‘green’ sectors, and the EU recently announced a revised ‘Green Deal Industrial Plan’ it hopes will rival it.

Zelenskyy was an outsider in Ukrainian politics, emerging from the creative economy rather than the oligarchical class, giving him credibility and popularity, she adds.

Like Mark Milley, the current chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has made statements that we really need to move towards negotiation. Abelow agreed to chat briefly with Real Change, touching on how he avoided the touchier sides of the subject, how the American public has been misled about the war and why it’s important that the conflict comes to a conclusion as quickly and safely as possible. leading in a very bad direction that is dangerous and harmful, not only for the United States and Europe, but perhaps especially for Ukraine itself, for Russia and for the rest of the world in terms of risk of nuclear war.India is also, as noted, the only CITRUS country where the prevailing opinion is that the US (28 per cent) and Europe (36 per cent) are mostly supporting Ukraine to defend it as a democracy – this may reflect India’s sense of itself as the world’s largest democracy. How ever much we disagree with Russia’s undoubted authoritarianism, nationalism and intolerance it is vital to understand Russia’s perspective rather than lazily resorting to relentless demonisation.

I have a medical degree — an MD degree — from the Yale University School of Medicine, and years ago I worked in Washington, D. This may end up being the biggest geopolitical turning point revealed by the war: that the consolidation of the West is taking place in an increasingly divided post-Western world. Last but not least, considering the poll scope and questionnaire, the results from Russia and China need to be interpreted with caution, bearing in mind possibility that some respondents might have felt constrained in expressing their opinions freely.In Europe, the polls were carried out for ECFR as an online survey through Datapraxis and YouGov in Denmark (1,064 respondents; 3-11 January), France (2,051; 3-12 January), Germany (2,017; 4-11 January), Great Britain (2,200; 4-10 January), Italy (1,599; 4-12 January), Poland (1,413; 3-20 January), Portugal (1,057; 4-12 January), Romania (1,003; 4-11 January), and Spain (1,013; 4-11 January); and through Datapraxis and Norstat in Estonia (1,022; 18-24 January).