How Russia’s invasion of Ukraine rippled through the world
February 24, 2022. The Russian invasion of Ukraine begins. What follows quickly turned into a cataclysm for Ukraine and Russia. After nearly a year of fighting, Ukraine's economy and infrastructure are hard hit. Military casualties on both sides continue to climb, as does the toll on Ukrainian civilians. The war is felt across the globe as well, where grain shipments from Ukraine used to stave off famine in Africa. And Russian gas kept Western Europe warm.
According to the United Nations World Food Program, Ukrainian grain fed 400 million people in 2021, but during the first few months of the war, Russia blocked shipments of grain from leaving the Black Sea. The grain prices basically exacerbated the crisis in places like Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya and other places. But even as far as the Sahel region, which is in West Africa, you've seen the highest levels of food insecurity there since 2014. And many experts attributed in part to these rising food prices, particularly of grains. I mean, Ukraine and Russia historically have been among the largest exporters of grain to Africa and the Middle East. As grain carriers stayed moored in Ukrainian waters, on land, the flow of refugees fleeing the violence spilled into neighboring countries. According to the International Rescue Committee, there are nearly 8 million Ukrainian refugees across Europe, and another 6 million Ukrainians are displaced inside the country.
The refugees have basically fled neighboring countries. The whole of the loan has granted protection for 1.2 million Ukrainians in other countries, including Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, Moldova, all also basically allowed them into their countries and are providing refuge. They've also gone as far away as even Spain and the UK. Russians too fled their country in record numbers. The war in Russian President Vladimir Putin's botched military mobilization set off a flood of immigration from Russia not seen since 1917. Ukrainian refugees, although welcomed by their neighbors for the most part, enter a Europe that is wary of soaring costs for goods and fuel.
I know that Europeans are concerned. Concerned about inflation, concerned about the energy bills, concerned about the winter. The International Monetary Fund warned in January of this year that any escalation in the war would be a major pain point for Europe. The war has already affected trade, spurred global inflation fears and concerns over energy and gas distribution. These increases in energy and food prices have hurt the most, the poorest both within economies, but also the low-income countries. With high prices and a reduction in Russian energy exports, economists have also seen a change in attitude toward renewable energy. For the first time in 2022, the EU generated more electricity from renewables and natural gas.
That is a remarkable shift. The war has also changed the thinking of Ukraine's role in NATO. For years, NATO membership for Ukraine has been out of reach, with NATO members walking a fine line of appeasing Russian objections and offering Ukraine vague promises of membership at some point. Well, definitely the war seems to have united NATO unlike anything they've seen before and also made them closer to Ukraine as well as to EU. With Russia annexing Crimea in 2014 and invading in 2022, the argument against Ukraine membership is dwindling, and in fact, NATO could be growing. Both Sweden and Finland, which initially had always been non-aligned with NATO, they have opted to join NATO and they've put in applications for it. So that itself shows you how concerned these countries are of what they see as a new era of Russian aggression.
What Putin feared, a strong united NATO, is happening before his eyes. For now, the West's resolve is strong, supplying Ukraine with weapons, ammunition and money. But as the war turns into its second year, the biggest risk is if the conflict intensifies, leading to even more refugees, more destruction, more injured and more dead.
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