Day 577 - On Saturday, September 23, 2023 an embattled congress left President Zelensky hanging.
That day Oleksandr Mykhed wrote in the Guardian that he had decided to delete his missile alarm app. What was the point?
He could not write requiems anymore for his brilliant and loving friends who had died one by one. He wrote that while he knows it is important to preserve the memories of those who were loved… the pain is too great.
At some point there are no more words for annihilation.
But that day Oleksandr Mykhed wrote about people trying to “preserve what was lost”. He related that “on a particularly difficult day during Putin's War without end, a bunkered down teacher lectured to rats around him so he could at least hear his own voice
Day 340 - Every global internet watcher is a witness to the invasion of Ukraine. For those who want to be an informed witness, Frontline and the Associated Press have provided hard-won verified documentation here.
Day 387 - The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued a arrest warrant for Valdimir Putin who is accused of bearing criminal responsibility for the abduction and deportation of Ukrainian children.
Day 390 - Wars end, yet never end. Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the US invasion of Iraq leave a toxic environment with permanent elements that threaten all life and the health of future generations.
Day 392 - Justice may have a long arc, but sooner or later The massive evidence of war crimes that continues to build will find a home in the courts. 0ver 30 NGOs, members of a Ukrainian coalition called 5AM, work closely with national investigators and prosecutors, and international investigative bodies. Investigations into Russia's war crimes began nine years ago.
Day 393 - Why no coup ousting Putin? The Ukraine invasion is not for Russia. It is Putin's personal war and in that sense it is a "forever war" where his successful fear mongering and purposefully vague reasoning have shut off avenues for domestic challenges.
It is Day 110 of Putin's War - It strikes me that the media is two-dimensional and it has a short attention span in terms of broader understanding. This is distracting.
Perhaps media’s inability to communicate complexity and/or the internal disorder in the US has caused it to run out of steam even as courageous reporters as individuals work on the grounds of Ukraine. Perhaps it is the hesitancy of nations and politicians. Perhaps it is numbness.
Meantime, Putin addresses young entrepreneurs and repeats the word “consolidation.”
In other words, even as a bomb hits an agricultural station filled with grain; even as reportedly cluster bombs indiscriminately kill and leave a legacy of unexploded bombs, the proxy war in Ukraine is a stepping stone and a deliberate distraction from Russia’s pronged approach toward the creation of an empire with satellite colonies.
Is this true? These are his words:
He lays out the rationale to young entrepreneurs that Russia is only taking what historically has belonged to it.
The weak will fall because they are already weak. They will be colonized.
So, he kills and starves with detachment while simultaneously wooing a growing network; in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
He woos the young. In archetypal terms he tells the young Russian entrepreneurs that they are its future. He promises them many goodies.
They laugh and smile happily in a group photo with a smiling Putin. I wonder then, who among you has a relative or friend in Ukraine.
He doesn’t have to mention the West as an antagonist. The media does it for him in two-dimensional terms. The media does not explain the word "consolidation".
“Nothing but sorrow comes out of war…there is only destruction.” Vincent Van Gogh, Letters to Theo.
“Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadow. It’s what sunflowers do.” Helen Keller.
A relative of the sunflower dates back to 47.50 million years ago according to the fossil record. Originally it was a bushy plant native to North America until the Hopi developed a single stem variety that became the most commonly recognized sunflower. Its prehistoric and historic relationship with humans is estimated from 4,500 years ago and possibly to 10,000 years ago in the South and North Americas.
The Spanish brought the sunflower from the Americas to Europe in the early 17th century.
The sunflower appeared in Ukraine and Russia in the mid-17th century and new strains for seeds were developed. Two million acres were planted in the countries and seeds were exported as well as sunflower oil as a healthier alternative to other oils. Before the invasion by Putin, Ukraine had provided 46% of the world’s sunflower crop.
In 1986 following Chernobyl sunflowers were planted to help absorb harmful toxic elements and radiation from the soil.
In 1996, at a Russian missile base located in southern Ukraine, there was a ceremony marking the successful effort to gather all ex-Soviet nuclear weapons and avoid further proliferation. Sunflowers were planted on the site.
Sunflowers represent the face of hope. In the morning, young sunflower buds turn toward the east, where the sun rises. As Martin Bailey observed, “those that do flower this year will face their neighbor Russia.” As the national flower of Ukraine, the sunflower is the face of both resilience and hope.
In the late 1800’s Russia developed the mammoth sunflower which grows up to 14 feet tall. The huge sunflower variant came to US via Russian immigrants. At the end of the season the heavy sunflower head bows low under its own weight.
Day 62 - There some irony in the fact that Russia and Ukraine are among the ten nations that have codified ecocide in their domestic laws because the effects of Putin's War around the globe are profound including massive environmental harm to nature, the frenzied production of gas and oil, and the mass migrations of people that affect all nations including Russia. And yet, the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, Part 11, Section X11, Chapter 34, titled Crimes Against Peace and Mankind's Security, contains Article 358, which states Massive destruction of the animal or plant kingdoms, contamination of the atmosphere or water resources, and also commission of other actions capable of causing an ecological catastrophe, shall be punishable by deprivation of liberty for a term of 12 to 20 years. n the midst of Putin's lawless war may this lawful Act, which potentially positions Russia as a global leader with foresight be recalled by the people of Russia?
Day 93 of Putin's War - There are contexts where the word “disturbing” is pabulum and an endpoint. It is a word frequently used by politicians who will do nothing. However, as a artist or writer might know there are times when the word “disturbing” is critical. It might be a point of departure.
On day 93 of Putin’s War a mobile unit with a large TV screen travels the streets of “defeated” Mariupol. Children there would not have a summer vacation. They are subjects of enculturation.
Yet the very young captured Russian son and later interviewed by a Ukrainian journalist, spoke the term “special operations” with irony.
The journalist asked the son if he would like to speak to his father by phone. A lengthy monologue ensued. The father lambasted the son for his failure to understand the order of things according to the party line. The son grew increasingly silent. His tired face showed defeat.
The journalist became increasingly agitated over the hardline interchange between father and son. He asked the son if the conversation was finished and asked for the phone. He wanted to reach the father himself with questions. The journalist then questioned the father about his beliefs and the origin of his facts with little rancour and some gentleness though he had been covering the pain inflicted on Ukraine since 2014.
Toward the end of the conversation the journalist asked the father several times to respond in his own words. The father’s repetitive responses, meant to cover all questions, began to falter. He wanted the conversation to end because he did not have his own words.
And yet, the disturbing conversation breathed hope. It was a dialogue between generations with an intermediary that should not die. Perhaps then the father will find his own words.
There are many other sons and daughters trying to break through Putin's propaganda and reach those they love. Misha Katsurin was one of those sons. He later invited others to share their stories.
Day 49 of the Ukrainian War - UPDATE - On April 12 President Joe Biden reversed an earlier statement that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was not genocide. Following the question of genocide and intent, below, written based on past practices that poorly defined “genocide”, the most recent media accounts indicate that “intent” has become a critical component, coupled with multi-layered evidence of the occurrence of war crimes. Accounts include Vladimir Putin’s statements that he will not cease his invasion of Ukraine and, importantly, that negotiations are at a dead end. These statements bring the motive of genocide to the forefront.
The world sees the horrific images. Around 300 bodies were found in the streets and buildings of Bucha, including citizens with hoods on their heads and hands tied behind their backs. There were signs of torture. Outrage soared again throughout the world. Now who could possibly doubt that the Russian troops were guilty of war crimes in Putin's War.
The road to justice looks like a long process according to most legal experts. Additionally, Bill Wiley, founder and Executive Director of the Commission for International Justice and Accountability, says gathering evidence of war crimes is time dependent based on the control Ukraine holds in the fog of war.
Eventually, there are and will be the emergence of international legal meanings by treaties and by customary law, however adequate and however fair; no matter who wins or whether it is an ongoing conflict.
In general it appears, based on current evidence of war crimes, that with just a few exceptions there is no war crime that Russia has not committed in Ukraine under the Geneva Conventions and the Rome Statute.
The atrocities committed by Russia have destroy lives, homes, and an entire country. They appear in plain sight in the media. Still, proving culpability at the top with direct evidence has to be established.
Under current international law in the context of war, however, there is the question of meanings and legal definitions.
Taking into account the fact that such unprovoked aggression is unprecedented in over 80 years and the fact that there are no relevant international legal mechanisms to hold the Russian Federation accountable for such a grave crime, I supported the initiative by the international scholar community to create a Special Tribunal aimed at delivering justice for the crime of Russia's aggression against Ukraine. A coalition of states will take part in its creation. Meanwhile, Ukraine is working on collecting all the necessary evidence related to the crime of aggression, and we are grateful to our partners for their readiness to support our efforts, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Mr. Dmytro Kuleba.
There is a call for a “special tribunal” to investigate war crimes that have occurred. Past special tribunals that target a country in response to specific crises include the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. These tribunals are temporary though residual work continued after closure. Despite this investigative activity, their jurisdiction is relatively narrow.
The goal of a special tribunal in the case of Ukraine would be to investigate Putin's War as a possible crime of aggression. Investigations and joint investigations are being conducted by diverse agencies and governments as well as the media. In the middle of the fog of Ukraine's war investigators seek evidence during an active war to achieve a burden of proof of war crimes.
Sources of evidence include witnesses, victims, photo and video evidence, satellite images, testimonies, and as Wiley called it, "pocket debris"; instructions and battle plans found on computers, cell phones, and written instructions. The search for evidence is challenging in today's world. For example, social media might be a source of proof. At the same time, it can be a source of misdirection propaganda, red herrings, and hacking.
Examples of global and diverse entities undertaking investigations include governmental bodies inside Ukraine, independent media reporting, the European Union as a joint investigation with Ukraine, the International Criminal Court (ICC) and Eurojust (European Union Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation). The latter agency investigates core international crimes which are ongoing and not statute-barred such as cases pertaining to the Second World War and the former communist regimes of Eastern Europe. Several countries have also launched their own investigations.
Investigations range from sorting through rubble and exhaustive interviews to highly sophisticated technologies. For instance,forensic experts with the International Commission on Missing Persons not only helps to identify bodies using DNA samples, but helps identify how civilians and soldiers died as evidence for future trials.
Whatever the extent of the investigations what legal meanings will determine the value of these investigations? In other words, what would be the content of a "special tribunal" in regard to Ukraine? How will this evidence be used; by what legal definition and toward what meaning and, in terms of justice, over what period of time? Can a special tribunal effectively deliver justice based on a crime of aggression which targets top leaders? International law in the context of war has a poor track record. In the name of sovereignty, justice is denied too many victims because of power imbalances and outdated meanings.
War crimes are defined to an extent in the United Nations Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) established in 1998 and effected July 2002. Enforcement by ICC depends on the actions of its member countries. Its jurisdiction is limited. This is largely due to the self-interests of the respective nations. For example, the US, one of seven countries that voted against the statute, would not sign a treaty that might lead to the ICC's ability to charge Americans on foreign soils with a crime.
Genocide is considered the most horrific of war time outcomes. It has been heavily studied by scholars and experts without much consensus. So, what constitutes genocide? President Joe Biden said that Putin is guilty of war crimes, but not genocide. President Zelensky says that Russia is guilty of genocide. Under the current usage, President Joe Biden's statements to the media would be correct. President Zelensky's claim is based on a broader definition of genocide which more effectively defines the crime in terms of justice and remedies.
The term "genocide" has been locked in memories of the Holocaust so horrific that the act of genocide is poorly defined as an act of war. Rather there has been a reliance on "specific intent." Consequently, because of a lack of further definition of genocide, the ICC, charged with bringing individuals to account, has a poor record in terms of preventing genocide.
However, horrific the actions of Hitler, did he intend to wipe out an entire race? Does Vladimir Putin? A reliance on intent, rather than the consequences of acts of systematic acts war crimes to a society ignores escalations in a war such as the rallying cry "the madness of nazism" or the outcomes of an invasion. What if war time actions affect a group or partial group to the extent that a society can no longer function now and in the future. As Pramono (2007) said the current meanings of genocide is , “paralysis by design.
Finally, the proposed special tribunal would rely on a burden of proof in relation to the crime of aggression as the most effective tool to bring national leaders to trial. It is a means to hold, not foot soldiers or mid-level war criminals, but national leaders as the only ones capable of committing a crime of aggression.
Under Article 8 of the Rome Statute the Crime of Aggression only applies to persons in a position effectively to exercise control over or to direct the political or military action of a State.
However, within international law in the context of war, a legal definition of what constitutes war crimes relies on various treaties and customary laws in the context of armed conflict. There is no single international document that effectively codifies war crimes, policies are unclear, and the delivery of justice is riddled with the national agendas that are far removed from nations' enlightened self interest.
More specifically, powerful nations limited ICC jurisdiction over crimes of aggression, except through the UN Security Council which is greatly composed of the same nations. In 2018 a resolution was passed that stated the ICC had no jurisdiction over ICC states or their nationals that had not ratified crimes of aggession amendments. This exempted some of the greatest perpetrators of war crimes.
The Bucha atrocities are represented by the images of indiscriminate killings of civilians. On its face, these images reveal horrific war crimes. Perhaps in a court of law Vladimir Putin will call the killings accidents or blame the other. Perhaps they will end up in limbo - still undefined.
Given the loopholes and means that do not lead to strong policies in international law in the context of war and given the extent of violations, the problem of positive feedback loops in imbalanced international courts, as well as the challenges associated with wars around the world in today's world, a permanent tribunal is essential.
Some see the creation of "special tribunal" as a stepping stone to perhaps a more permanent tribunal or court. Others say a permanent change is needed now.
Some believe that if there was a regime change in Russia then a special tribunal is not necessary. This is a dangerous belief. In fact, history demands change.
Arguably, whatever is deemed the character of Russia, the state of international law in the context of war has lead Vladimir Putin to believe, with some justification, that he can act with impunity, including blackmailing the world with the threat of nuclear war.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) as it is currently constrained is a rough approximation of a more permanent tribunal. However, its jurisdiction has been manipulated by larger powers; members and non-members that rely on antiquated meanings of sovereignty and “defense” to exempt their countries from accountability. This has never been addressed.
Nuremberg set a stage and much was accomplished in establishing crimes against humanity. However, this is not a 1945 moment. This time in history is not Nuremberg. The singular focus of temporary ad hoc special tribunal on a particular country cannot address issues as inseparable from the global effects of endless wars or the question of the winners and losers of war?
A special tribunal cannot address global primary and secondary effects of war as facts of war. War is, in fact, part of a whole global reality: the pandemic and further threats, the reality of climate change, the unprecedented global movements of people as a consequence of wars, access to basic needs such as food and water, and the hostage effects of nuclear war are all consequences of nationalistic past and present wars that require accountability and justice.
It is naive to think that there is an immediate solution to the national self interests of diverse countries focused on preserving their sovereignty and position of power. Yet the immediacy of the above realities threaten all of humanity.
There are no winners. This must be represented as a matter of enlightened self interest. This requires restructuring international laws based on some trust in a more permanent structure with the capacity to address past relationships and defensive postures between countries large and small. War in place of peaceful solutions kills not just individuals, but, as more people around the world are discovering with Ukraine, an entire humanity.
Is this achievable? Universal and effective legal meanings about the facts of war have been blocked and stalled in terms of full ratification by member and nonmember countries that do not want to be accountable for past crimes and future actions and that hold enough power to act with impunity.
For example, in the case of Ukraine, ICC jurisdiction for Crimes of Aggression are dependent on referrals from the UN Security Council. Russia is a founding and permanent member of the Security Council. It holds the veto power to protect its own interests. President Zelensky's statement to the Council resonates when he says to the Council, fix the problem or disband.
As another challenge to existing international law, new and old actors profit greatly from war. “The relationship between mass atrocities and economic activities was addressed at Nuremberg . Today, the power of non-state actors, including the power of translantic corporations to enable war has grown exponetially. Despite the acknowledged role of corporations in furthering war crimes since 2003, and indeed since the Nuremberg trials in the mid-20th century, no corporate actors have been prosecuted. In addition Russia has emboldened far right movements internationally.
Putin hammers on the theme of the West. In this context Is NATO a help or a hinderance to addressing these different interests and negotiating peaceful settlements under a rule of law?
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) , founded in 1949 as a security alliance using political and military means, has an uneasy alliance with the UN though the two organizations have different purposes.NATO members are split on the subject of expansion versus the need to build stronger alliances with former enemies.
The US has a large influence as NATO's most significant financial contributor which causes a significant imbalance within the organization. An effort in 1997 to establish official bilateral discussions with Russia did not go well because of lack of trust in NATO's balance of power, perceived or actual. Since then Russia has repeatedly warned that it will protect its sphere of influence against expansion.
Arguably, some actions by NATO can be represented as war crimes - as violations of the UN Charter Chapter 1, Article 2. Summarily, NATO cannot effectively operate with a goal of peace if the UN Charter and customary laws are not followed.
Articles 1 and 2 outline the original purposes of the United Nations:
1. To maintain international peace and security, and to that end: to take effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of threats to the peace, and for the suppression of acts of aggression or other breaches of the peace, and to bring about by peaceful means, and in conformity with the principles of justice and international law, adjustment or settlement of international disputes or situations which might lead to a breach of the peace;
2. To develop friendly relations among nations based on respect for the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples, and to take other appropriate measures to strengthen universal peace...Can we move towards the Gorbachev vision of a European common home with no military alliances, a conception not too far from the U.S.-initiated Partnership for Peace... Noam Chomsky Interview, Truthout, April 7, 2022
Would a permanent tribunal strengthen chances of global peace?
A permanent tribunal that asks the right questions over time offers more solid ground for policy and for diplomacy. It can work toward swifter justice with coordinated investigatory power.
It provides foresight. President Zelensky warned that the longer the Russian Federation delays talks with Ukraine the worse the situation becomes." He is spelling out the vehicle for genocide. Yet, as we watch events unfold increasingly legal opinions warn that it will take years before any justice is delivered.
In the end, there is the fearful reality that Putin’s War will not be called a total war. It will be effectively normalized as a “special operation”, whatever the emotional pull of images pouring from the internet. Vladimir Putin and his immediate cohorts and their actions will remain relatively untouched by international law even as crimes against humanity mount.
If the will to make significant changes to move beyond the fog of war does not exist there will be high costs to humanity and all nations and their people will suffer.
The reality is there are monstrous individuals that rise to power fed by an on the most basest instincts of those who become their followers. They are monstrous not only by their nature, but by the widening havoc as a consequence of their actions. There is no negotiation with these individuals.
What can be negotiated are the collusive forces that have defined historic relationships between nations based on the maxim that might makes right, rather than a greater intent to seek peaceful settlements through the rule of law.
As Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Commander of the allied forces in World War II, and later President of the United States, said “In a very real sense the world no longer has a choice between force and law. If civilization is to survive, it must choose the rule of law.” Henry A. Giroux wrote:
Historical amnesia and a prolonged military conflict combine making it easier to sell war rather than peace, which would demand not only condemnation of Russia but also an exercise in self-scrutiny with a particular focus on the military optic that has been driving U.S. foreign policy since President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned in the 1950s of the danger of the military-industrial complex. Nonstop Corporate News on Ukraine is Fueling Support for Unchecked US Militarism," Truthout, Op-Ed, The Public Intellectual Series, April 13, 2022.
Without the active presence of a more effective and broader permanent tribunal in recognition of this reality we will forget and deny. We will live with what Hannah Arendt describes as “the banality of evil.” It will be called politics, which ignores the reality that this evil engages the complicity and collusions of “normal” people as logical extensions of everyday institutional practice. These are the very images from Ukraine we are looking at today as soldiers rape, pillage, destroy, and kill.
Though we might wish to raise the hope and spirit Nuremberg trials we can’t. This is not Nuremberg. This is not a post-war 1945 moment. It is however a challenging search for meanings Justice Robert Jackson put forth.
It is March 23, 2022. Putin's War is in its 27th day - In Ukraine, thousands of people, millions, many with destroyed homes, are surrounded by willful destruction of people's lives and edifices that represented the heart of Ukraine. That heart occupies a key place in humanity.
In World War 11, Zygmunt Aksienow, a Polish boy, rescued a canary from a bombed house. He explained that this act was as a "sign of the normal life I was used to."
In their escape in 2022 the people of Ukraine cradled what is normal and innocent - their children, their dogs, cats, and birds.
Even as Ukrainians fight for their country and families seek shelter, they are cloaked with more or less distant music carrying the belief that the canary will sing again.
In the United States, composer Igon Puchalski, carefully set his breakfast; a piece of toast with cheese and marmalade, squarely, just right on a napkin. He followed that ritual every morning.
His music was a powerful rendition of hope and grief. He composed the King of Hearts , following the film, as a ballet. In his version, a small boy helped patients in a mental health institute escape and take over a small village during World War 11.
The composer was not so removed from the nine-year-old boy who, after watching his father's execution by the Nazis on the street in front of their house, had crept through tunnels with other boys searching for food until he was caught and put in a German concentration camp.
In Ukraine, Davide Martello traveled from Germany to Korczowa, Poland to offer a sense of peace to Ukrainian refugees at the border. Rina Maniukina wiped the residue of war off her piano keys and played surrounded by the rubble and the debris of shattered doors and windows after an airstrike hit her street. She played brilliantly.
A young girl sang Let it go in a bunker. A young boy played a gentle and enduring Philip Glass composition on a piano in Kharkiv hotel as news of the Russian advance came in.
Putin's War enraged, random war, so engorged with hate, continues. Still, whether he likes it or not he will ended up being a small man in the whole of humanity. Because in answer to his invasion there is music in bomb shelters, subway stations, on streets, at borders - by voice, by horns, by violins, and piano - the collective voice - truth to power - is everywhere in Ukraine.
On February 24 Russian attacks began in earnest. On February 25, Karim A.A. Khan, chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Court (ICC)< acknowledged jurisdiction over possible war crimes associated with the Russian invasion. However, pundits looked at triadic crises and the inability of international law to enforce Putin's illegal actions as a megapower and nations' economic hesitancy to impose sanctions to the extent that many nations will lose a critical energy source. While a firm committment to lessening energy independence on Russia's gas and oil might be another motive for nations to address climate change, self-interested behavior on the part of nations during pandemic has revealed how much it will take to create a more coooperative global order that can enforce an international rule of law and effectively support essential and equitable socio-economic changes.
It is February 27. Perhaps, in the end, this invasion is less about an inflated bully enamoured with his long shadow and dangerous toys and more about the power of ordinary people who join together. They are people, just people.
A woman stands before a soldier and asks angrily “what are you doing in my country?” Take these seeds and put them in your pocket. She asks more than once. The soldier, perhaps, wonders what he is doing there. She could be his mother. He stands silent. She tells him again. "You will go to hell... put the seeds in your pocket."
A leader stands firm and talks to an internet connected world. Come volunteer and fight back with us, he says.
Around the world many thousands of diverse people, governments, and businesses protest.
This is not the first invasion to kill and destroy lives and communities. Maybe, just maybe, politicians from whatever country who have capitulated to a bully , who have aligned themselves with fear and greed at the expense of lost lives and damaged countries, will see this global response for what it is.
It is March 2 and it is the seventh day of the war in Ukraine - Oddly, I am recalling Dennis Kucinich and his heartfelt but failed effort to pass a bill establishing a Department of Peace in the U.S.. How radical.
Well, there is no such institution.
Alternatively, we, all of us, all nations of people, with internet exposures to events unfolding in Ukraine, are not sitting in the front row. We are all willing or unwilling active players. The question now is what is our role?
Perhaps it is to write a new play for the next generation about the art of diplomacy.
Otherwise, this war is our mutual destruction. Its terms are diminishing solutions to the large challenges such as climate change, the spread of diseases, and hatred. These challenges will remain unabated without global cooperation and acceptance of the other. Toward that end, diplomacy must appear as a central character. Because, the stark reality is war without diplomacy simply repeats itself. That is all it has done and all it will do.
On the seventh day of the war in the Ukraine, seasoned voices from every nation speak from that perspective and provide tools. Noam Chomsky, Yurii Shelliazhenko<, and many others from different nations speak, along with the media voice of doom, as do the stories of everyday people coping with war.
There is a unified voice that promises a deeper understanding of mutual responsibility, with few political exemptions, and the true value of enlightened self interest that effectively defies the cyclical nature of war. This understanding can shape critical diplomacy on behalf of our children’s future. It is the radical and only path to peace.
Russian's indiscriminate and brutal advances into Ukraine threaten Ukraine's previous efforts to improve its public health care system. War means it might take decades of recovery or in cases irreversible damage when it comes to maintaining a public health system.
Ukraine has had many public health challenges before and since the breakup of the Soviet Union.
Though significant problems remain, Ukraine has made significant progress and that has been a source of pride and hope for the country.
Primary care, which was weak, under Soviet rule, has become stronger and more efficient in Ukraine through a network of family doctors, general practitioners, and community pediatricians.
The country's efforts have paid off. Ukraine's live birth mortality rate dropped from 18·3 per 1000 livebirths in 2000, to 8·4 in 2019.
Ukraine also made significant advances in prevention and early detection?
There is more progress to be made.
Since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, over 44 million residents of Ukraine receive free publicly funded health services. Still, while there have been reforms to Ukraine's Public Health system health in financing and continuous advances in primary care, over half of total spending costs are still out of pocket.
The country, like other eastern countries, deals with cardiovascular diseases with limited resources. Additionally, Ukraine has the fourth highest drug-resistant tuberculosis incidence and the second highest burden of HIV in the WHO European region.
Moldova, the poorest nation in Europe, has experienced widespread corruption and an out-migration of one million people out of a population of around 4.2 million, which contributed to a severe shortage of health care professionals. Making positive changes to its public health care system has been made more difficult due to its changing governments. Despite these odds Moldova has made positive changes such as inroads into its high rate of drug-resistant tuberculosis, which is strongly associated with poverty conditions, and so requires a strong committment to economic development.
Belarus, under an authoritarian regime, has lost its health professionals at least partly because of repressive actions on the part of its government.
One Amnesty International report detailed catastrophic consequences , including many deaths, because health care workers have been targeted by authorities in Belarus. Punishments for any dissent from the medical community include beatings, detentions, surveillance, blacklisting, and threats to health care workers and family members.
However, Ukraine overall has made progress. Much of Ukraine's success has been due to a firm commitment from its government and the support of western countries.
A oncology surgeon from Karkiv was one among other health care professionals working under heavy attacks by Russia, which included Ukrainian hospitals. Targeting hospitals and other care facilities considered to be war crimes, as defined by the Geneva Convention.
The surgeon observed that on one of those nights in-patients had to be moved seven times. In general, normal health care activities were cancelled. He and other specialists could not address needed surgeries or care for patients who had heart disease or cancer even as the basic needs of food, water, medicine, and blood for transfusions were in short supply.The consequences of this war now has to managed by Ukraine as yet another layered public health challenge, which include serious environmental concerns such as the toxicity of cities as concrete buildings are blown apart, the aftermath of disease and hunger, delayed health care, or serious and pervasive mental health issues.
As still another layer, Amid the fighting, WHO officials had noted Ukraine's "remarkable" continuance of reporting of Covid-19 cases and deaths. However, sustaining reporting is a challenge in the war torn country. There is a severe strain being placed on the vulnerable country's delivery and reporting systems.
Ukraine had one of the lowest inoculation rates in the region, with 34 out of 100 people having received two doses of a coronavirus vaccine. The effects of massive movement of people on COVID-19 numbers is worrisome. WHO data shows that the country has a critical oxygen shortage. This shortage was exacerbated by the closure of at least three major oxygen plants.
Putin's war has brought disruptions, damages, and death to Ukraine with long term effects. Human, material, economic, and environmental losses will exceed Ukraine's ability to cope using its own resources.
There is little to no hope of redress from Russia, which has failed to address many of its own public health care challenges including depopulation, high mortality and increasing morbidity rates, low birth rates, extensive migration, and the rise of infectious diseases such as tuberculosis and HIV.
Russia's challenges and future direction are global challenges that require relationships with the West. Without this relationship Putin's war on Ukraine, will significantly undermine Russia's effort to build a more viable health care system.