Russia's Ongoing War of Aggression in Ukraine

(Published March 2, 2022; last edited November 12, 2024)

As of this writing, Russia has pursued its war of aggression and expansion into Ukraine for nearly 1000 days (since late February of 2022), resulting in horrific loss of life, including executions of innocent civilians and destruction of cities in a country that did nothing to deserve being attacked.

It is clear that Putin, still hurting from the demise of the Soviet Union in 1991 (more properly understood as having to change the country name to Russia), is looking to restore the old order. With Trump—who boasts about being respected by Putin—about to return to the White House in two months from this writing, not only Ukraine, but other likely targets of Russian aggression in Europe (e.g., Poland, Romania, and Moldova) face their most serious existential crisis since the WW2 era.

Everything possible must be done by the Western democracies to assure that Russia is defeated and that the remnants of the old order, still eager to return to that old order, are purged forever from the leadership of Russia as a condition for Russia's reentry into the community of nations. That such a step was not taken in 1991 can be blamed for the situation Europe is in today.

Added to the concerns over security in Europe, a military alliance between Russia and North Korea has resulted in NK military combatants being sent to fight Ukraine along side of Russians. It should be obvious why this alliance presents a risk to the free countries of Asia as well, but some are looking away.

As a tiny provider of Japanese/English language services, there is little we can do beyond avoiding any dealings with Russia or with states such as China that are Russian allies, and there were already other reasons to avoid China and Chinese entities.