Calling for Talks, Not Tanks in Ukraine
Pictures and report by Phil Pasquini
San Francisco: One year ago today Russian forces invaded Ukraine in what was thought would be a short conflict in taking over the country in Putin’s expansionist desire to create an ever-enlarging version of the Russian Federation. Instead, a year later Russia is bogged down in a bloody war having made little headway towards realizing that end. The resulting quagmire has cost hundreds of thousands of lives on both sides and billions of dollars in damage to Ukraine.
In recognition of this horrific anniversary, groups from around the world today called for an immediate cease-fire and negotiations to begin in ending the war. The spillover from the conflict has thus far caused worldwide economic disruption, food and fuel shortages, the displacement of 13 million Ukrainians, environmental destruction, political instability and high inflation.
As a proxy war pitting the US and Russia continues with no end in sight, China, Iran and North Korea are now making their desires known to assist in rearming the Russians to prevail in the conflict. This new combined rearmament effort as NATO continues supplying arms to Ukraine can only result in a wider war pitting major nuclear powers against each other and increasing the chances of a nuclear Armageddon.
Standing in the rain, demonstrators outside of Senator Diane Feinstein’s San Francisco office on February 24 demanded an immediate cease-fire and for negotiations to begin now in ending the war. “Talks not tanks and money for our needs” is how activists framed their objections to the ongoing conflict by calling upon Feinstein to desist in further voting to finance the war. To date, Feinstein and her colleagues have voted for appropriations to the tune of $113 billion for weapons and other military expenditures in Ukraine.
In framing their objections to the expenditures, if the money were to be spent in the US we could build “1,600 hospitals, replace all the lead pipes in the country, provide free internet for all US residents and end hunger four times over.”
Activists are not alone in their calls for ending the war as this week the United Nations General Assembly again renewed its demands for Russia to withdraw its troops from Ukraine to end the war and to install a lasting peace. China, too, has been active in calling for Ukraine to consider its 12-point peace plan in ending the war that some have noted to be more heavily favorable to Russia than Ukraine.
These issues of war and peace and what or who started a conflict no matter where one stands take on even more urgency when nuclear-armed powers enter the fray, as a small miscalculation can result in the annihilation of our planet.
(Phil Pasquini is a freelance journalist and photographer. His reports and photographs appear in the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs and Nuze.ink. He is the author of Domes, Arches and Minarets: A History of Islamic-Inspired Buildings in America.)
