For this week’s blog post, I want to reflect and talk about the Ukraine – Russia conflict and our conversation about it In class. Before class, I had definitely heard about the threat of war between Russia and Ukraine, but I didn’t really understand it and the severity of it. It is very disheartening to hear that there could be a big war and large loss of life in the next few months, especially when it seems semi preventable. Obviously, I’m no expert on this subject, and I somewhat just learned about it, but to me, I think referring to this as a big identity crisis is spot on. Really, Vladimir Putin seems like a paranoid dictator with way too much power for his and his country’s own good. Something that I had never heard about and find really interesting is how Russia’s history or at least a big part of it Is invasion because of their lack of natural borders. I am certainly not justifying Russia invading its surrounding countries, but I could see how at some point they had to do something. I think they should have tried negotiating first, and coming to some sort of an agreement or treaty with their surrounding countries. If Russia was able to invade 11 countries, I’m sure they could have worked something out instead. Now, I am going to ask some questions that I’ve thought of during and after our class. My first question is what does it look like to live in Ukraine right now? Is there mass panic or hysteria? I am trying to imagine the US in this situation and I can’t even imagine feeling the fear they must feel right now. Also, what does it look like to live in Russia right now as well? Because of the global pandemic, supply chain issues are already bad, and on top of that being cut off from trade with the rest of the world? It is hard and getting harder to get the necessary resources to live? To me, it sounds unpleasant to live in both places right now. Another question I have is around how long will it take for Russia to recover from the Ruble collapse? Could this be a multi-year struggle? Finally, my last question is what will Ukraine look like 10-15 years from now? I have no sense of the damage that could be done, so what is the worst-case scenario for Ukraine now? I think that’s all my questions for this post, so I’m going to end here. Sorry for the shorter post!