Since February 24, 2022, the media has taken full coverage of the Russia vs. Ukraine war. Although it has been going on since 2014, Russia’s potential siege of Ukraine has taken an even more deadly turn this year. 

The war in Ukraine began 8 years ago when Russia kept paramilitary troops in certain Ukrainian regions. This spring, the war escalated after Putin announced that he would like to demilitarize Ukraine and essentially wrap them under Russian ownership again. 

Just a few days ago, the Ukrainian city of Kyiv began to hit a zenith in its struggle. “There’s no hot water; part of the city is without power,” said one New York Times reporter on October 11th, 2022. This same article explains that Russia’s elites have a very high chance of viewing this war escalation as a sign of strength against Ukraine; even though Russia’s militarily is losing. As of the past few weeks, Ukrainians are mainly facing casualties with 2-15 people being killed week by week. Political analysts such as Greg Yudin are saying Russia wants to scare Ukraine into submission no matter how long it takes. 

During a meeting with the Security Council, President Putin explained that Russia is only fighting Ukraine because Ukraine is committing atrocities such as terrorist attacks on Russia, which remain unprovoked. While insulting Ukraine, President Putin did not mention that Great Britain and the United States are helping Ukraine, and instead placed full blame on them. The Kremlin, the Russian Confederation’s government, has painted NATO countries in a violent light for their aiding of Ukraine. “If attempts to carry out terrorist attacks on our territory continue, the measures taken by Russia will be tough and in their scale will correspond to the level of threats posed to the Russian Federation,” President Putin said, “No one should have any doubt about it.” Many say that Russia is painting Ukraine in a terrorist light rather than a colonizable light. 

Although the United States aims to aid Ukraine, administrative officials in the Capital are not allowing themselves to try and predict the next moves of the war. One anonymous official of the Biden administration explained in a recent article with The Washington Post that, “turning points of war are usually points of danger…you can’t predict what’s around the corner.”