In late February of 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin declared war on neighboring country, Ukraine. The war has continued to escalate as it entered the third year of the conflict. With more countries joining the conversation, it’s about time for an update.
The Russo-Ukrainian War exploded into action on February 24th, 2022 after Vladamir Putin gave the order for a full-
scale invasion of Ukraine. Missiles rained down over the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv as Russian soldiers quickly took over the eastern Ukrainian border
through the country Belarus. Since then Ukraine has deployed troops, and the conflict has continued for the past three years.
A large number of American news outlets and media sources have slowly been moving away from reporting on the war. However, in the past four months the war has begun a new phase which has drawn the attention of the media. Newly elected President Donald Trump announced during his campaign trail that if he were to be reelected then he would aim to end the Russo-Ukrainian War as soon as he was in office. However, his attempts to do so have sparked controversy.
Kate Flugge, a Central High School World Government teacher, mentioned how America has recently stopped full support of Ukraine and how “The US withdrawing its support certainly seems to benefit the Russians.” The current administration plans to attempt a mineral deal with the lesser country. If this deal comes into fruition, the U.S. will have a large control over the precious minerals Ukraine has in order to “repay” the money that the U.S. “loaned” Ukraine as stated by President Trump. BBC says that “Volodymyr Zelensky says Ukraine is ready to sign a deal with the US over his country’s mineral deposits, days after he was told to leave the White House following a fiery exchange with Donald Trump and US Vice-President JD Vance.” This is in reference to the original talk of the deal that occurred in the White House on February 27. However with the U.S. backing away from Ukrainian support, the rest of Europe will need to step up or Ukraine will suffer heavily.
While the war has yet to reach an end, the United States has begun peace talks with both sides (Ukraine and Russia) individually in the neutral sight of Saudi Arabia in late February. As of March 24, both Ukraine and Russia have hesitantly supported the idea of a temporary ceasefire. The two countries are to meet each other in a United States mediated talk located in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Though the American government continues to attempt a potential end to the war, a portion of American citizens are concerned with how the new administration has handled it thus far. Flugge noted that “The current US presidential administration’s abrupt end of support for a democratic ally in Europe is definitely surprising.” Ryan Gosling, one of the U.S. Government teachers at CCHS, claims that “at this time we can accurately predict how this will end.” However, at this time “the war will drag on for some time with fighting escalating in key areas in a kind of back and forth war of attrition until one side can either political or economically no longer continue.”
