100 days of the war

The Russia-Ukraine war is 100 days old and there are few signs to be hopeful that it will end anytime soon. Instead, the battle lines are hardening, with the US announcing a $700-million weapons package for Kyiv that will include advanced rocket systems with a range of up to 80 km, while Germany has pledged to supply Ukraine with state-of-the-art anti-aircraft missiles and radar systems. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken claims that Ukraine has promised not to use the systems to hit targets inside Russia, but the latter is not convinced. Dismissing the assurances, Kremlin has accused the US of ‘deliberately and diligently pouring fuel on the fire’, while Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said that the supply of the rocket launchers raises the risk of a ‘third country’ being dragged into the conflict.

The war has battered global economy over the past three months and created geopolitical instability in Europe, triggering fears of World War III. The humanitarian upheaval has assumed alarming proportions: More than 6.6 million Ukrainians have fled, mostly women and children, in Europe’s biggest exodus since World War II. The longer the war drags on, the greater will be challenges for a world that is still picking up the pieces after the mayhem caused by the Covid pandemic. The UN has warned that the conflict is fuelling ‘a three-dimensional global crisis for food, energy and finance’ that is affecting ‘the most vulnerable populations, countries and economies’. The ominous scenario must spur all stakeholders to go all out to bring this war to an end at the earliest.

Unfortunately, the trust deficit between Russia and Ukraine, and also between Russia and the NATO countries, seems to be widening. Both the warring nations as well as the international community have not done enough to bridge the chasm. Sanctions-hit Russia has not ruled out a meeting between President Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Zelenskyy, but it wants a framework for any such talks to be prepared in advance. Thrashing out a mutually acceptable framework and bringing both sides to the negotiating table should be the top priorities for giving peace a chance.

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