War in Ukraine sends tremors around the rest of the world

World of Politics with Harry McGee

We often wear blinkers when writing about politics, especially in the bubble of Leinster House. But there is one ongoing tragedy that runs through the course of all our daily lives – the ongoing ravaging of Ukraine and, in particular, of cities like Mariupol and towns like Bucha.

In many wars such as the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, or the interventions in Syria, the rights and wrongs of the conflict are like going down a rabbit hole.

There is blame on every side – including the West – but here there is no scintilla of doubt; the aggressor is Russia and the villain is Vladimir Putin.

The death toll is already unimaginable, both in displacement and in deaths and injuries. In the space of five weeks, whole cities and towns have been blasted back to the Middle Ages.

It has not come at a zero cost for the Russians – an estimated 15,000 of its troops have died, three times the number of Russian soldiers who died during its entire occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s.

Before the war, Mariupol was a bustling port city on the Black Sea with some beautiful quarters. Now it is just rubble and debris.

Thousands of people are still trapped inside without inadequate food and water. Russia won’t stop pounding the city into smithereens until it has taken control.

The ripples of this conflict are felt everywhere; in Eastern Europe; across Western Europe; the Mediterranean into Africa, where rising grain prices have pushed up the price of their staple diet, bread.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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