With the first lights of the day in Ukraine, the Russian invasion has officially begun with Vladimir Putin’s order. Ukrainian officials declared a full-scale invasion by Russia and is underway as explosions are reported across the country. The Russians got into Kiev within an hour. After the sudden attack, President Zelensky imposed martial law. People were woken up by explosions all around the country. Ukrainian citizens are evacuating the country. 

After I heard what happened, I made contact with my friend Alessandra who lives in the capital of Ukraine, Kiev. She told me “We were all expecting and knew what was coming, but we thought the Russians would invade Donbas in the beginning, not the whole country. My family was shocked when they heard the bombshell from Kiev. My little brother started to cry. I froze. Everything in our lives turned into a nightmare. My dad thought that maybe we could drive to the west, to European borders. Then he decided it’s not a good idea at that time because he said traffic will be jammed because everybody will try to evacuate the city, which happened. We still don’t know how to react. I don’t trust Russians. We are not secure right now. I can see the Russian aircraft, and the bombshell outside my window. I’m so stressed out. I don’t know what to say.” She was crying, and I could hear that her voice was trembling when she was speaking. This affected me so deeply. 

What is happening is not a surprise. Ukraine has been under Russian invasion since Russia forced Ukraine to hand over Crimea. Everyone knew that Putin wanted Ukraine. In his last declaration, Putin mentioned that he was missing the Soviet Union and announcing his goals to put Russia in control of the land formerly controlled by the Soviet Union. Plus President Zelensky is pro-European, and his government is close to NATO. So, you don’t need to be a politician or a strategist to see that invasion was coming. If you read the news, you’d easily see that.

So this invasion has been happening in front of our eyes, but why has no one tried to stop Putin? That is a question that I can not answer. However, the only power that could’ve stopped this attack was NATO with the US army. Ukraine begged them to get help. President Zelensky asked for help millions of times. He talked to every strategic country’s leaders such as Macron, Erdogan, Biden, Scholz, Johnson. They did nothing. Those countries let Ukraine be invaded. Macron tried to convince Biden, and Erdogan still has the control of the Black Sea Bosphorus.  

It is quite acceptable why Europe and Turkey remained passive until now. Russia supplies more than half of their energy, and if Russia shuts off the valves, this could lead to another crisis in Europe. So, Europe has no choice other than to remain moderate.

Let’s talk about NATO and the United States. The US army is 2-3 times more powerful than the Russian army. When you add other NATO countries’ armies, this number becomes 4-5 times greater. Even if they have the power to stop Russia, Joe Biden did nothing but threaten Russia with sanctions. 

I have a question for Joe Biden, when it comes to the Middle East, you loved being an interventionist all the time when you were in charge of the Middle East, but why did you stop this time? Are you scared of Putin? Is it easier to support by supplying guns to the terrorist groups in Iraq and in Syria to fight against the regime? All you have done is threaten Putin with sanctions which everybody could see Putin did not care about. If you put one American soldier to that border, Russia couldn’t attack. Russia is strong, but they can’t take the risk to face NATO. Long story short, Biden failed, and Putin showed that he is the greater leader.

I don’t want you to misunderstand me, I’m a social-democrat, neither a Republican nor a Democrat. I don’t support any of the parties in the US in terms of my political view. I don’t care which party is in the lead. But when I see a leader who failed in a critical situation like this, I get angry. Because when you are in charge, the smallest maneuver you make could cause millions of people’s lives. With this war, there will be at least 6-7 million refugees. 

Potentially this could lead to the biggest war of the century. Ukraine’s population is 42 million. Everybody in the country will be affected by this war. 42 million lives are in danger because the US hesitated to fight against Russia. I hope this war ends as quickly as possible. My hopes and prayers are with Ukraine.

Featured Image by @muaveteni.milliye