Ukraine became independent from Russia in 1991, becoming the second-largest European country. Then, the Budapest Memorandum was signed in 1994. This document followed the agreement that Ukraine would transfer its nuclear weapons from the Cold War to the Russian Federation. Ukraine, the US, and Russia signed honoring Ukraine’s sovereignty and territory.
More recently, Ukraine was the center of debate during a Northern Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit on April 23, 2008. NATO was discussing giving Ukraine a Membership Access Plan (MAP) to allow Ukraine to become a member of the organization. However, the discussion involving Ukraine’s NATO membership was stopped when Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, voiced his objections leading to Ukraine not receiving a MAP.
These events are what led up to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022. According to Putin, Russia could not exist with a “constant threat emanating from the territory of Ukraine.” Putin referred to the invasion as a “special military occupation” saying that he wants to “demilitarize” Ukraine rather than conquer it.
However, Ukraine is not alone in its battle for independence.
Currently, there are numerous states providing aid and resources including the U.S., the U.K., South Korea, Spain, Norway, and Japan. Even Switzerland broke its 200-year-long neutrality to sanction Russia. According to the Institute of International Finance, Russia’s economy might contract by 15%. But the casualties have yet to slow. There have been 1,793 people killed and 2,439 people injured, a total of 4,232 casualties. With new attacks happening almost every day, the casualty count is rising.
Though as hard as Russia is fighting, Ukraine hasn’t lost its resilience to Russian rule.
OP-ED
The day Russia invaded Ukraine, the whole world went quiet and watched.
Then questions started to be asked and panic rose. Who’s going to help Ukraine?
Is this World War III? Does the U.S. send troops?
While some of these questions have been answered, one of them has been left in the open by the American people. Should the U.S. send troops to Ukraine?
The answer is no.
A recent AP-NORC (Associated Press National Opinion Research Center) poll found that 72% of Americans think that the US should play a minor role in the Russia-Ukraine conflict or none at all.
Despite President Biden’s reassurance that the U.S. would not send military aid, there is still an argument over whether that decision is right or wrong.
However, with the US’s history of constant international intervention, the number of nuclear weapons, and billions in aid, US military aid is not attainable.
President Biden authorized an $800 million security package and an additional $500 million dollars for economic assistance and sent a total of $13.6 billion in aid.
“That can make a real difference because this begins to close the quantitative gap between the Ukrainians and the Russians. In fact, some estimates are now that the Ukrainians have as many tanks on the battlefield as the Russians,” former U.S. ambassador to NATO Doug Lute said.
Russia has 6,527 nuclear weapons and the US publicly admits to having 5,550.
Vladimir Putin has already threatened that any outside intervention would “face consequences greater than any [they] have faced in history.”
The effects of a nuclear war could harm millions of people, and that’s not a risk we should be willing to take.
Nuclear war is too high a price to pay with the radioactive fallout, blast waves, intense heat, and the guaranteed massive death counts.
“It’s not like we’re dealing with a terrorist organization,” said President Biden. “We’re dealing with one of the largest armies in the world. This is a very difficult situation, and things could go crazy quickly.”
U.S. involvement could unintentionally harm Ukraine’s nation specifically as historically U.S. foreign involvement hasn’t always ended well. During the Vietnam War, for example, the Berkely. Edu found that the U.S. dropped three times more bombs on Vietnam than the Allies dropped in the Second World War. According to JStor.org, the United States dropped 8 million tons of bombs in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos between 1962 and 1973.
The War in Afghanistan lasted from Oct. 7, 2001, to Aug. 30th, 2021.
Watson.Brown.edu reported more than 71,000 Afghan and Pakistani civilians are estimated to have died as a direct result of the war. The war caused the effects of poverty, an environmental decline in Afghans’ well-being, malnutrition, and poor sanitation. The CIA even helped fund and arm Afghan militia groups that have been involved in human rights abuses and the killing of civilians.
We all but decimated Afghanistan and Vietnam in the name of “helping”.
Our own country can’t even agree to provide military aid.
The U.S. shouldn’t provide military aid to Ukraine. Not without causing World War Three and unseen consequences. Our help would cause more damage than good.
There is nothing more we should do except for providing financial aid and condemn the acts of Russian aggression.