![]() ![]() Humanitarian agencies should, with donor support, prepare for the worst. Russia itself will surely be required to host large numbers of refugees, for which it does not seem to have prepared. Large-scale displacement and emergency medical needs are likely. The UN and others should take urgent steps to help Ukraine prepare for the war’s probable humanitarian fallout. To the extent they can pressure Russia to reverse course, they should do so. Russia’s friends, especially China – which for the moment appears, regrettably, to have cast its lot with Putin’s plan – should take stock of what this disruptive act will cost them politically and economically. They should make clear the reputational costs of Moscow’s war of aggression. Non-Western powers should make their voices heard, following the example of Kenya’s permanent representative to the UN, whose powerful intervention before the Security Council on 21 February called Russia out for its violation of Ukrainian sovereignty. At the same time, though diplomacy holds little promise in the days ahead, they should keep the door open no matter how bad things get. They should also keep supporting Ukraine with weapons and other assistance. NATO and its members should also continue to build up forces on the alliance’s eastern flank. That means rolling out the full sanctions packages they have promised, including against financial institutions, Russian officials, and business leaders, while avoiding steps that unnecessarily harm average Russian citizens, such as visa bans. The first task for Western powers and their partners – one that is well under way – is to take the steps they had warned Moscow’s military escalation would provoke. While the available steps may seem small given the scale of what President Putin is doing, and cannot turn back the clock or by themselves reverse Russia’s aggression, a demonstration of unity and imposition of costs by outside powers represent the best hope of bringing the region, and the world, back toward a more stable order: ![]() The rest of the world, and not just the Western powers who thus far have been most vocal, now needs to do what it can to limit the damage. Russia’s belligerence deals a staggering blow to the norm against conquest, which – though sometimes honoured in the breach – has underpinned global affairs since World War II. Ground forces that then entered Ukraine indicate that Russia has embarked upon not only an air campaign aimed at toppling Ukraine’s government but a full-scale invasion. The bombardment follows a months-long build-up of as many as 200,000 Russian troops on Ukraine’s borders, to the north, west and south. Residents of Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and cities throughout the country woke to explosions as Russian bombs and missiles fell on military facilities and infrastructure. President Putin announced what he characterised as a “special military operation” to demilitarise and “denazify” Ukraine, and made a barely coded threat of nuclear strikes upon any outside power that might come to its aid. That Western leaders had warned of this possibility for weeks did little to cushion the shock. In a chilling act of aggression, Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a military assault on Ukraine in the early hours of 24 February. A vigorous but judicious Western and global response is critical to limit the damage. Russia’s assault on Ukraine threatens to become the largest European conflict in decades. ![]()
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