In what is considered as one of the largest conventional warfares after the WWII, Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February from three sides that some observers also maintain that it could bring about a paradigm shift in the global security order. The Russian defence ministry, in an Agence France-Presse coverage, officially justified that President Vladimir Putin decided to conduct the “special military operation to demilitarise and de-Nazify Ukraine so that, freed from oppression, Ukrainians themselves could freely determine their future.” Meanwhile, the Russian president has also warned global leaders against actions that will stop Russia’s operation in Ukraine. Any interference, he emphasized, will attract immediate response that will lead to consequences they have “never faced in their history Beyond the veil of the ongoing conflicts, there are the shadows of geopolitics, energy security, conflicts in the Russian-controlled territories of Luhansk and Donetsk, revisionist politics, the annexation of Crimea, interference from the NATO and the US and so on. Less than a week into the war, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi tweeted that 500,000 Ukrainians had crossed into Poland, Hungary, Romania, Moldova and other countries. As of 2 March, according to Russian military, 2,800 Ukrainian troops had died in the fighting. In any battle for supremacy, however, civilians always pay the highest price. In this brief period, the Russian currency also plunged about 30% against the US dollar. Bertrand Russell succinctly put it: “War does not determine who is right—only who is left.” And sadly, it’s just the beginning in Ukraine. ∎
