In January, Russia’s president Putin amassed 190,000 troops on the border of Ukraine. Putin stated that he would not invade Ukraine, if he were guaranteed that Ukraine would never become a NATO member. He did not get his assurance. On Feb. 24, Putin launched an unprovoked attack on Ukraine.
In response to Putin’s incursion, President Biden imposed sanctions on Russia, while keeping America out of a military conflict. Putin used his armies to assault Ukraine. NATO allies and the United States used their economic and financial powers to counter Putin’s aggression.
In Ukraine, the question became whether the Ukrainians would run out of ammunition before Putin ran out of Russians. Arms were shipped to aid the Ukrainian military and civilian defenders. In the second week of his onslaught of Ukraine, Putin brought in volunteers from the Middle East to reinforce his troops. In the third week of the aggression, he requested China’s assistance, but China remained mute.
Russia, a great military power, was seeking assistance to conquer a smaller, outnumbered, and outgunned nation. Is that a glimmer of hope for Ukraine? I hope so! It’s evident Putin underestimated Ukraine’s zeal to be free.
In their valiant quest for freedom, Ukrainian forces scored a 10-to-1 kill ratio against the invaders. Columns of Russian tanks stretched out over tens of miles and showed their vulnerability; nearly out of fuel and low on supplies. In desperation, Putin directed his military’s fire power against defenseless Ukrainian civilians. For Putin, a dead Ukrainian is a dead Ukrainian, regardless whether he’s in uniform or in diapers.
Civilians often become collateral damage in warfare, but Putin’s deliberate targeting of civilians was unprecedented.
I recalled British and American fire-bombing of Dresden in Germany, during World War II. There was an estimate of about 40,000 German civilian casualties in three days and nights. Similar death tolls were inflicted in Kassel, Jena, Schweinfurt, and other industrial cities in Germany. Visions resurface in my mind of the red glow in the night sky at various locations of the horizon, after bombings.
The world is aghast with the images of Russia’s onslaught on the Ukrainian people. The question remains: “What motivates Putin’s ferocity?”
First, Putin intended to demonstrate the power and might of Russia’s military. But more than that, Putin is sending a message to the NATO alliance. In his rage, Putin is likely to expand his targeting of civilians to include American and Western travelers, journalists, and diplomats, worldwide.
American and other NATO alliance embassies may become imperiled by Benghazi-like attacks. Russians demonstrated the long reach of their assassins in the murder of Leon Trotsky in Mexico, on Dec. 21, 1940.
It is his warning — a preview of what NATO member nations are to expect in a confrontation with Russia, as Putin wants to restore Russia’s glory with borders encompassing most of Eastern Europe.
Fred Natkevi was born in Lithuania, became a refugee from the Eastern front in WWII and emigrated to the U.S. after the war. He is a longtime resident of Oak Park.