Foreign
Ukraine Crisis: Russians Hope For Peace As The World Talks of War
While some Russians believe the West is aggravating the situation, most want an urgent diplomatic resolution.
Only first names have been used in some instances to protect identities.
Nobody in Russia wants a war, says Ekaterina, a 25-year-old master’s student at Moscow’s Higher School of Economics.
“Everyone is quite worried that there will be a third world war, and everyone hopes the conflict will be resolved peacefully,” she told Al Jazeera by phone from the Russian capital, as tensions over Ukraine showed no sign of easing.
“Lately, more and more people are also becoming increasingly upset about how Russia and Russians are portrayed in most foreign media, like villains or some poor, weak-willed people or drunkards. It is simply not true.”
For Roman, a 53-year-old businessman, the current crisis is far from novel.
He hails from a city – known as Gorlovka in Russian and Horlivka in Ukrainian – in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR) run by Russia-backed separatists but now lives in Moscow.
“There’s shelling [there] every day,” he said. “I talk to my former classmates in Donetsk a lot and they say that Ukrainians are shooting at Donbas every day,” he added, referring to the conflict-ridden region where the DNR lies.
As Western powers fretted over a significant Russian buildup of troops at the Ukraine border, fearing Moscow is planning an attack, DNR officials recently said there were some 120,000 Ukrainian troops stationed near the line of contact with the Donbas, and more military equipment was arriving every day.
“People in Donbas have a negative opinion of Ukraine’s leadership,” said Roman. “If you were being fired at every day, how would you feel?”
Roman says his brother, a separatist fighter, was killed in 2017 while covering another fighter from mortar fire.
“He was 42. He died on January 8, my birthday,” he said. “He was in the separatist militia from the very beginning.”
Roman is convinced that if it comes to military action in Donbas, Russia is more likely to attack Ukraine.
But he hopes that common sense will prevail and that an all-out war can be avoided.
While Russia has repeatedly claimed that it has no military designs on Ukraine, these denials have done little to ease Western concerns.
NATO members have sent military equipment to support Kyiv and Western powers, led by Washington and London, have toughened threats of sanctions should Moscow make a move towards an attack.
In this photo provided by the Russian Defence Ministry Press Service, a Russian soldier attends a military exercise at the Golovenki training groundRussian diplomat Konstantin Gavrilov said recently that over the past few years, the West has claimed that Russia has invaded Ukraine “at least 21 or 25 times”.
“We have a joke,” he said, “that when Russian troops entered Ukraine in 2022, they encountered the Russian troops that entered Ukraine in 2014.”
According to Maxim Suchkov, acting director of the Institute for International Studies at Moscow’s MGIMO University, “the Russian military deployments alongside the Ukrainian border at this moment are not about invading Ukraine”.
“There are no clear political goals behind that intervention. And I haven’t heard anyone clearly explain what the political goals could be because, ultimately, wars are fought to achieve certain political goals, not just for the hell of it.”
He believes there are two possible motivations for Russia’s buildup – to deter Kyiv from further offensives in the separatist Donbas, and to compel the West to ultimately accept its security proposals.
Last December, Russia sent a list of demands for security guarantees to the US, saying that fulfilling them would de-escalate the crisis.
Primarily, it wants NATO to permanently block Ukraine from becoming a member. The Kremlin also calls for the end of NATO drills near Russia’s borders and for NATO to withdraw from Eastern Europe.
Moscow received US and NATO responses on Wednesday, which it said failed to address these key points.
According to the Levada Center, most Russians believe that a war between Russia and the West has been around for a long time: an invisible, cold, information warYevgeny Popov, a member of the Russian State Duma, said possible NATO expansion towards Ukraine is meant to put “further pressure on Russia”.
“[Our demands] are necessary conditions for guaranteeing the safety and security of our citizens,” he told Al Jazeera.
“A NATO country armed with ballistic missiles on our borders is a direct threat to our citizens.”
In Russia’s view, its security demands are not negotiable.
“The threats have now become tangible,” said Popov. “Never before have there been so many reconnaissance flights by NATO, never before have there been so many threats in our direction. Never before has there been so much tension in Russia’s modern history.”
Others in Russia agree that NATO bases appear to have “surrounded” Russia.
“When Putin said that Russia is cornered or pushed against the wall and has no way to retreat, I don’t think that was a metaphor, but rather a real reflection of how the Russian leadership feels at the moment,” said Suchkov.
“Because if Ukraine is in NATO, then it is not just at Russia’s doorstep, it literally is on the threshold.”
A recent survey by the Levada Center, an independent Russian pollster, suggests that 50 percent of Russians believe the US and other NATO countries are responsible for aggravating the situation in eastern Ukraine.
Sixteen percent believe it is Ukraine’s fault while about 4 percent blame Russia.
“We are seeing how Ukraine is being pumped full of weapons at an incredible scale,” said Popov. “Ukraine, whether it wants it or not, is ready for a full-scale war.
“But in Russia, no one is talking about a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Our troops are on our territory. We are conducting exercises, but this is merely in response to the aggressive statements, to threats of sanctions and threats to ‘cripple our economy’, as [US Secretary of State Antony] Blinken has put it.”
For many in Russia and Ukraine, the latest frictions are simply another chapter of a long saga.
According to the Levada Center, most Russians believe that a war between Russia and the West has been around for a long time: an invisible, cold, information war.
Some believe the US and the West are deliberately trying to drag Russia deeper into conflict.
At the same time, the prevailing opinion is that Russia will be forced to respond.
Levada Center quotes one respondent as saying: “America and Britain are pushing Ukraine to take aggressive action towards Donbas, and by doing so, they are trying to force Russia to stand up for Russian citizens who live there, in order to justify further sanctions.”
Popov describes the situation as “dangerous”.
“It is obvious that if Ukraine begins an offensive against the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics, Russia will intervene. We are obliged to protect their lives and safety.”
He stressed again, however, that there are no plans to attack Ukraine: “We still consider Donbas to be Ukrainian territory.”
Suchkov also warned that an attack on Donbas could derail any attempts at dialogue.
“US and NATO are supplying weapons and military trainers to Ukraine, military contractors are filling up the country,” he said. “It may embolden the leadership in Kyiv – or other actors in Ukraine willing to derail these talks – to launch a military offensive on Donbas that would provoke a response from Russia.”
This scenario is, therefore, not entirely off the table.
Dozens of Palestinians killed in overnight Israeli strikes in central and south Gaza as Red Sea tensions rise.
Here’s how things stand on Monday, January 15, 2024:
Latest updates and human impact
- Israeli attacks continue unabated overnight killing and wounding dozens of civilians in central and southern Gaza. At least 22 people were killed and a large number injured as a result of Israeli forces targeting al-Thalatheni Street in the central Gaza Strip.
- Yemen’s Houthi rebels fired an antiship cruise missile toward an American destroyer in the Red Sea, which was shot down by a US fighter jet, announced US Central Command (CENTCOM) on X.
- This was the first US-acknowledged Houthi attack since the US strikes on Yemen on Friday.
- Hamas released a 37-second video showing three Israeli captives held in Gaza on Sunday, saying they would reveal the fate of the captives on Monday and urging the Israeli government to stop the offensive.
- The Israeli military says it has shifted to a new phase of the war focused on the southern end of Gaza, where almost 2 million internally displaced Palestinians are running out of safe spaces to shelter.
- The Gaza Ministry of Health has said almost 24,000 people have been killed in the Israeli offensive. More than 60,000 people have been wounded in 100 days of war.
Diplomacy
- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that his country will pursue its war against Hamas until victory and will not be stopped by anyone, including the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
- The White House said on Sunday that “it’s the right time” for Israel to scale back its military offensive in the Gaza Strip.
- Egypt’s State Information Service (SIS) said in a statement on Sunday that one of the biggest obstacles to the timely delivery of sufficient aid to Gaza was Israeli inspection of the aid. The statement came after Israel blamed Cairo for the delay in aid delivery to Gaza during its defence at the ICJ.
- US Secretary of State Antony Blinken posted on X on Monday, calling for the release of the remaining captives held in Gaza on the 100th day since they were taken by Hamas. He did not mention the Palestinian casualties.
- Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong, who described herself as a “friend of Israel” to the press, will travel to Jordan, Israel, the occupied Palestinian Territories and the United Arab Emirates this week, her office said on Monday.
West Bank raids and violence
- Israeli forces arrested 25 students staging a sit-in in protest against high tuition fees at An-Najah University in Nablus. Al Jazeera’s Hamdah Salhut reported that the protesting students received a text message from Israeli forces telling them to “surrender now”.
- Israeli forces have reportedly raided the family home of Nael al-Barghouti, the longest-serving Palestinian prisoner, in the village of Kobar, in Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank.
- The Israeli army said on Friday that it killed three Palestinian men who infiltrated a West Bank settlement and fired upon soldiers.
- The Israeli military killed two Palestinians after accusing them of ramming their car through a checkpoint near Hebron.
- Local sources reported that Israeli forces bulldozed two Palestinian-owned houses during a Sunday midnight raid in the city of Qalqilya, Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.
- Armed Israeli settlers broke into the village of Burin, south of Nablus, and attacked Palestinian residents’ houses and properties after midnight on Sunday, Wafa reported.
- “Violent raids and arrests have become part of the fabric of daily life in the occupied West Bank,” Al Jazeera’s Mohammed Jamjoom, reporting from Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, said. At least 347 Palestinians have been killed and thousands have been arrested since October 7.
Flames and smoke billow during Israeli attacks against Gaza on October 9, 2023
Human Rights Watch terms Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant’s call for a ‘complete siege’ on Gaza a ‘war crime’.
The Hamas movement has threatened to kill an Israeli hostage every time Israel bombs a Palestinian home without warning as Israel mobilised some 300,000 reservists and imposed a total blockade of the Gaza Strip, denying the enclave’s millions of residents access to food, water and fuel.
The warning from Hamas came on Monday as the death toll from the armed group’s surprise weekend attack climbed to 900 in Israel and revenge attacks by Israeli forces on the besieged Gaza Strip killed more than 700 people and left some 3,700 others wounded.
Residential apartment blocks, hospitals, schools and a mosque have been among the sites attacked by Israeli fighter jets, artillery and drones, according to media reports and witnesses.
Hamas spokesperson Abu Ubaida issued the threat to kill Israelis from the dozens held captive by the armed group. He said an Israeli hostage would be killed for every Israeli bombing of a civilian house without warning.
Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen said more than 100 people were taken captive by Hamas during the deadly cross-border incursion over the weekend.
As Israeli forces conducted intense retaliatory attacks on Gaza on Monday, Israel’s Defence Minister Yoav Gallant drew international condemnation by announcing a total blockade of the densely populated and besieged enclave, which is home to 2.3 million people.
Gallant said Israel would impose a “complete siege” on Gaza. “No electricity, no food, no water, no gas – it’s all closed.”
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was “deeply distressed” by the siege announcement and warned that Gaza’s already dire humanitarian situation will now “only deteriorate exponentially”.
Guterres also said some 137,000 people were taking shelter with the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) at schools across Gaza.
UNRWA said on Tuesday that almost 190,000 people have been displaced in Gaza amid the Israeli attacks and the figure is expected to grow further as the violence intensifies.
Nearly half a million people have also not received food rations this week in Gaza as UN food distribution centres have been forced to remain closed amid the Israeli onslaught, UNRWA said.
Human Rights Watch said Israel’s total blockade on the necessities of life for everyday people in Gaza was a war crime.
“Defense Minister Gallant’s statements are abhorrent,” Omar Shakir, Israel and Palestine director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.
“Depriving the population in an occupied territory of food and electricity is collective punishment, which is a war crime, as is using starvation as a weapon of war. The International Criminal Court should take note of this call to commit a war crime,” he said.
Abhorrent. This is a call to commit a war crime by @yoavgallant. The @IntlCrimCourt should take note.
Quote by @OmarSShakir ⤵️ https://t.co/kKVo6YtpI1 pic.twitter.com/neHQMwnXVn
— Human Rights Watch (@hrw) October 9, 2023
Shakir also condemned the threat by Hamas to kill hostages, warning that such action was also a war crime.
“All hostages should be safely released to their families,” he said.
Grotesque. These threatened acts would amount to flagrant war crimes by Hamas’ armed wing. The @IntlCrimCourt will be watching.
Quote from @OmarSShakir ⤵️ https://t.co/FuNtvHe0YG pic.twitter.com/6cnHODLWyZ
— Human Rights Watch (@hrw) October 9, 2023
On the diplomatic front, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan called on Hamas and Israel to immediately end violence and protect civilians, the Egyptian presidency said.
Erdogan urged Israel against “indiscriminately” attacking civilians and delivered measured criticism of Hamas, urging both sides to respect the “ethics” of war.
The United Kingdom, French, German, Italian and US governments issued a joint statement on Monday recognising the “legitimate aspirations” of the Palestinian people and supporting equal measures of justice and freedom for Israelis and Palestinians alike.
But the prospect that fighting could spread also alarmed the region and the world.
Lebanese armed group Hezbollah fired rockets into northern Israel in response to at least three of its members being killed in Israeli shelling of Lebanon.
Israel said one of its deputy commanders was also killed in an earlier cross-border raid from Lebanon.
US President Joe Biden holds a bilateral meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the sidelines of the 78th United Nations General Assembly in New York City, the US, September 20, 2023
Social media users, including journalists and observers, are calling out what they call a ‘double standard’.
After Saturday’s surprise attack by the Palestinian group Hamas on Israel, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy took to the social media platform X to offer “condolences go out to everyone who lost relatives or close ones in the terrorist attack”.
He also stated, “Israel’s right to self-defence is unquestionable.”
Many world leaders, including US President Joe Biden and UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, shared similar sentiments.
The world is seeing appalling images.
Thousands of rockets raining down on Israeli cities. Hamas terrorists killing not only Israeli soldiers, but civilians on the streets and in their homes.
It’s unconscionable. Israel has a right to defend itself – full stop.
— President Biden (@POTUS) October 7, 2023
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen stated, “Israel has the right to defend itself – today and in the days to come. The European Union stands with Israel.”
Accusations of Western ‘double standards’
Some social media users have criticised these statements, saying they highlight a double standard.
The world is seeing appalling images.
Thousands of rockets raining down on Israeli cities. Hamas terrorists killing not only Israeli soldiers, but civilians on the streets and in their homes.
It’s unconscionable. Israel has a right to defend itself – full stop.
— President Biden (@POTUS) October 7, 2023
Ukraine’s right to defend itself is praised by most international leaders while Russia’s invasion is condemned, but commentators said the same cannot be said about Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.
Aaron Bastani, a leftist British journalist, said on X that there’s a “clear double standard in endorsing terrorism against civilian targets in Ukraine … and condemning it by Palestinians”.
Many users said Western diplomats and media support the Ukrainians who defend their land, but label the Palestinians fighting against Israel as “terrorists”.
https://twitter.com/KhaledBeydoun/status/1710787817415082349?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1710787817415082349%7Ctwgr%5E6acf829869e993177f32aa38aa48c02f38cb7f61%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.aljazeera.com%2Fnews%2F2023%2F10%2F9%2Fwestern-leaders-accused-of-hypocrisy-over-response-to-palestine-ukraine
An illustration of a woman’s face, in which one eye is closed beside a Palestinian flag, and one eye open beside a Ukrainian flag, has been regularly shared as a symbol of the West’s alleged double standards in how the two conflicts are viewed.
https://twitter.com/OnlinePalEng/status/1710994682883273172?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1710994682883273172%7Ctwgr%5E6acf829869e993177f32aa38aa48c02f38cb7f61%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.aljazeera.com%2Fnews%2F2023%2F10%2F9%2Fwestern-leaders-accused-of-hypocrisy-over-response-to-palestine-ukraine
Clips also emerged on social media from a CNN interview with Mustafa Barghouti, the general secretary of the Palestinian National Initiative, in which he posed the rhetorical question, “Why does the United States support Ukraine in fighting occupation – while here they support the occupier, who continues to occupy us?”
The hypocrisy and double standards of western governments and media platforms dealing with situations in Ukraine-Russia and Palestine-Israel blow the mind. Absolute disgrace.
— Said Yacoubi (@AlyacoubiSaid) October 8, 2023
It is not the first time Western nations have been accused of double standards in their stance on the Ukraine war.
Earlier in the year, Amnesty International published a report highlighting the West’s “double standards” on global human rights.
Agnes Callamard, Amnesty’s secretary-general, told Al Jazeera at the time that the occupation of Palestinian territory was a “particularly important one”.
“Without making any comparison between Russia’s aggression and Israel … it is clear the Palestinian people are under a regime of oppression – a regime of occupation and a regime of apartheid,” Callamard told Al Jazeera.
Over the last three days, X users recirculated earlier statements calling out what they called Western hypocrisy, sharing video by the Irish lawmaker Richard Boyd Barrett from March 2022 in which he berated the Irish government’s double standards regarding Ukraine and Palestine:
“You’re happy to use the most strong and robust language to describe the crimes against humanity of [Russian President] Vladimir Putin, but you will not use the same strength of language when it comes to describing Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians.”
Barrett on Sunday again called out what he described as “shocking double standards of Western leaders supporting Ukraine resistance but condemning Palestinian[s].”
Meanwhile, others warned against comparing conflicts.
https://twitter.com/denfordauthor/status/1710993737738768607?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1710993737738768607%7Ctwgr%5E6acf829869e993177f32aa38aa48c02f38cb7f61%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.aljazeera.com%2Fnews%2F2023%2F10%2F9%2Fwestern-leaders-accused-of-hypocrisy-over-response-to-palestine-ukraine
And some cautioned that Hamas and the Palestinians should not be seen as one and the same.
Just to clarify:
Palestine did not mount an attack on Israel. An Iranian proxy militia did. Palestinians are by and large huddled in their homes praying that an Israeli airstrike won't kill them or theirs. Hamas is the culprit here. This isn't a decentralized grassroots thing.
— Romeo Kokriatski (@VagrantJourno) October 9, 2023
Ukrainian footballer Oleksandr Zinchenko, who plays for Arsenal, posted on Instagram, stating he “stands with Israel”.
Zinchenko has been a vocal supporter of his home country in its ongoing defence against Russia, and he participated in a Game4Ukraine charity match in London earlier this year to raise money for Ukraine.
After online backlash, with some questioning an alleged double standard in his support of Israel, the footballer removed the post and switched his social media account to private.
Several people claimed that Zinchenko’s football club, in not responding to his comments, was guilty of hypocrisy after they had distanced themselves from former player Mesut Ozil’s comments in 2019 over alleged human rights abuses against Uighur Muslims in China.
-
Audio10 years agoPage – Day Break Everywhere Burst
-
Audio5 years agoShadykarz – Forever
-
Audio10 years agoJuniorboy ft. 9ice – IRAPADA
-
Entertainment Gists6 years agoEx-Beauty Queen, Sandra Benede Shares Sexy Photo
-
Audio5 years agoSimi – Happy Birthday ft. Adekunle Gold, DeJa
-
Audio5 years agoRuger – Bounce
-
Mixtapes4 years agoMixtape: DJ DimpleNipple – The Best Of Amapiano Thrills
-
Editorials3 years agoSa’eedah Imam On Creating Her Imprint In The Nigerian Music Industry As An Emerging Creative Writer