By now, everyone has heard about the war started by Russia that’s currently facing the people of Ukraine. However, the situation across the world has escalated, and so has the violence.
As of March 21, Ukraine denied a Russian demand to surrender its port city of Mariupol. It appears Russia is attempting to compel Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and its president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, to accept its claims to Ukraine’s southern and eastern territories. According to the Wall Street Journal, the World Health Organization has stated that the fighting is taking an immense toll on Ukraine’s healthcare system; as of March 21, Ukraine has registered 14 deaths and 36 injuries in attacks on the healthcare system tied to the war. In addition to this turmoil, Russia claimed to have seized a Ukrainian military command headquarters and taken 61 Ukrainian prisoners of war. It also reported a missile attack on a training center for foreign and Ukrainian fighters in western Ukraine, which appears to have killed more than 80 of the fighters. On top of this, Russia and Ukraine recently exchanged accusations for damage at a chemical plant in a city in eastern Ukraine, which leaked ammonia acid into the city.
Looking at Russia, whose foreign ministry warned that relations between Moscow and Washington D.C. were on very thin ice, it’s clear to see that Putin will not back down until he has completely conquered Ukraine, which is unsettling for the innocent Ukrainian citizens and devastating for international relations.
In a Telegram video, President Zelenskyy called Russian military pilots “unhuman,” claimed that Russian troops hit the Zhytomyr region of Ukraine with rockets that same day, and reported that Ukrainian troops shot down a Russian aircraft in the Kharkiv region. In this same address, Zelenskyy also thanked those who helped evacuation corridors, rescuing more than 8,000 people last Monday from Russia’s attacks.
Another interesting development from this conflict is that a Russian tabloid posted a report on the defense ministry’s count of Russian soldier deaths in Ukraine. The now-removed article wrote that the Russian Armed Forces lost 9,861 people killed and 16,153 wounded during a special operation in Ukraine. Shortly after it was published, the story was updated to remove all references to the death count after getting attention through many social media posts. This may not seem like anything out of the ordinary, but Russia has not reported a military death count since March 2. After the article update was posted, the country claimed that the original report was a fake publication made by a hacker. However, the death count from the original report is consistent with the predictions from the U.S. Department of Defense, which claims there to be up to 10,000 Russian military deaths.
On Monday, President Biden confirmed that Russia has begun using hypersonic missiles (which are five times faster than the speed of sound) in its invasion of Ukraine. In this same address, Biden detailed an array of resources the U.S. has provided to Ukraine and NATO allies in the region, including $2 billion in funding to NATO and military resources to Ukraine, as he expects Russia to begin conducting chemical weapons attacks. Per CNN, President Biden and fellow world leaders, including the Prime Minister of the Netherlands and the President of France, are set to hold some emergency summits in Europe this week. Many believe that whatever they agree upon will be enough to end Russia’s massacre in Ukraine. The White House declared that Biden has no plans to visit Ukraine after denying President Zelenskyy’s request to place a no-fly zone over Ukraine this past week.
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