This is a ‘Catch Up with the News’ time to explain the background of the news and related terms. It has now been over half a year since Russia invaded Ukraine. Contrary to most predictions that Russia would easily win the war, the war is becoming more and more prolonged. Keeping up with the news, today we will take a look at the background and development of the war in Ukraine, and the impact of the war.
“The outbreak of war”
On the morning of February 24, Russian troops invaded Ukraine. For the past year, Russia has continued to build up troops and deploy strategic weapons along the border with Ukraine.
Major Western intelligence agencies, including the United States, have warned that Russia may soon invade Ukraine. But Russia has repeatedly denied that it has any plans to do so. The Ukrainian government was not in the mood to believe this either.
Rather, Russia insisted that Russia’s security was threatened by threats from Ukraine, which had its backed by the West, such as the United States and NATO.
Russia also advocated for the liberation of Donbas, citing the protection of pro-Russian rebels in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine.
Western intelligence authorities estimated that more than 100,000 Russian troops were gathered in the border area. As the level of military tension reached its peak, the international community, led by the United States and France, set out to find a solution.
The US also delivered a kind of security guarantee that Russia had requested. However, as negotiations continued sluggishly, Russia launched a so-called ‘special military operation’ once morest Ukraine.
“Development Process”
The international community was shocked and astonished at the news that Russia, the world’s second-largest military power, mobilized the army, navy and air force to wage an all-out war once morest Ukraine.
It was only a matter of time before the fall of the Ukrainian capital, Kyuubi, prevailed. However, thanks to strong support from the United States and the West, it is constantly moving forward and backward on several fronts.
At present, the Russian army has failed to capture the capital Kyuu, but it is occupying most of Donbas in eastern Ukraine and strategically important places in the south such as Mariupol on the Azou Sea coast and Kherson on the Black Sea coast.
It is understood that Russia now occupies regarding 22% of Ukraine’s territory, including the Krm Peninsula and the pro-Russian region of Donbas, which it forcibly annexed before the invasion.
The Russian military also took control of nuclear facilities in Ukraine, including the Chernobyl and Zaporiza nuclear power plants. Although it withdrew from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, it is still deploying troops at the Zaporiza nuclear power plant.
“Human casualties”
As the war continues, the casualties are also increasing. As of August 22, the UN estimates that nearly 5,600 civilians have been killed so far.
According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), more than 970 children in Ukraine were killed or injured. The actual number of casualties is expected to be much higher than this, but an accurate count is impossible in the midst of the war.
The number of casualties continues to rise. According to Ukraine’s announcement on the 22nd, the number of Ukrainians who have lost their lives in the past six months has reached 9,000.
Russia has not released the exact number of casualties. Ukraine estimates that more than 45,000 Russian soldiers have died. U.S. intelligence officials estimate the number to be around 15,000.
The war also resulted in a large number of refugees. More than 41 million people have lost their homes in war. This is the largest since World War II.
According to the ‘United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)’, as of August 17, there were approximately 6.658,000 Ukrainian refugees in Europe. Poland received the most with regarding 1.27 million people. Among Western European countries, Germany received the highest number of refugee registrations with 670,000.
“Economic loss”
The economic loss suffered not only by Russia and Ukraine, but also by the world during the Six-Month War is incalculable.
The World Bank predicts that Ukraine’s gross domestic product (GDP) will fall by nearly half this year.
In addition, although farmland, industrial facilities, and social infrastructure were destroyed in the war, it is difficult to accurately estimate the cost of rebuilding them. The Ukrainian government last month estimated that regarding $750 billion would be needed for post-war recovery, but it is expected to cost much more.
Russia is also experiencing considerable difficulties due to strong sanctions from the West, including the United States and Europe. But it still earns billions of dollars a month from gas and oil exports, and the Russian ruble, which has plummeted, is recovering.
The World Bank has predicted that Russia’s GDP will fall by 11% this year compared to last year. In the long run, the losses will accumulate and impede Russia’s growth, but the general analysis of experts is that it is not being hit hard enough to cause an immediate economic collapse.
The impact of the Russian-Ukrainian war on the world economy is also enormous. The world is facing a food crisis as exports of Ukrainian corn and wheat are blocked right away through the Black Sea. In particular, in Africa, where local production is difficult and highly dependent on foreign agricultural products, a crisis of hunger has been raised. In July, grain exports resumed through the intervention of the United Nations and Turkey, and the market seems to be finding stability.
However, the energy market remains volatile. Energy prices in Europe, in particular, are skyrocketing as Russia, the world’s major oil producer and natural gas producer, threatens to cut supplies in response to Western sanctions. With the war showing signs of prolongation, Europe’s concerns regarding preparing for winter are deepening.
“New Cold War Composition”
The Russian invasion of Ukraine is redrawing the international political and security landscape.
The most notable change is that Sweden and Finland, two wealthy Nordic countries that have maintained their neutral position for a long time, have agreed to join NATO.
NATO is a collective security alliance created by the West, including the United States and Europe, to prevent the expansion of the Soviet Union at the end of World War II. Russia has always opposed Ukraine’s accession to NATO, but it has led to NATO expansion.
In the midst of this, Russia is forming a new Cold War structure by expanding its borders not only to countries unfriendly to the United States, such as China, Iran, and North Korea, but also to Africa and the Middle East. The US and European countries are especially wary of the close moves between China, the world’s second largest economy, and Russia, the second largest military power.
This is the ‘People in the News’ time, which introduces the most talked-regarding figures in the latest news. Today’s protagonist is U.S. Congressman Liz Cheney, a Republican senator who is leading the opposition to former President Donald Trump.
The news that Congressman Liz Cheney lost last week’s Republican primary in the United States has heated up the American political spectrum. Senator Cheney is a three-term senior congressman with considerable influence in the Republican Party. However, in the intra-party primary held ahead of the midterm elections in November, it lost by a large vote of more than 35 percentage points to Harriet Hagueman, a candidate supported by former President Donald Trump.
Congressman Liz Cheney was born in 1966 into a deeply rooted Republican family in Wisconsin. Senator Cheney’s father is Dick Cheney, who served as Secretary of Defense during the George W. Bush administration and as Vice President under the George W. Bush administration.
Senator Cheney woke up early to politics under the influence of his father, who was a politician. He attended the University of Colorado, graduated from the Law School of Chicago, and held various positions in the State Department during the George W. Bush administration.
Cheney declared a run for U.S. Senate in Wyoming in 2014, but dropped out of the primary because of lack of party support.
In 2016, he ran for the House of Representatives and won over 60% of the vote to enter the House of Representatives. After that, he succeeded in winning a third term and firmly established himself as a senior member of the Republican Party. In 2019, she was also promoted to the position of chairperson of the House of Representatives, the third highest ranked member of the party.
However, he was stripped of his chairperson position last year following leading the impeachment of former President Trump and taking a step different from the party leadership. The path to a fourth term in the U.S. House of Representatives was blocked this time as former President Trump lost to a candidate in the party primary. Cheney, however, is committed to continuing his fight once morest Trump.
Some observers are predicting that Cheney will be the opponent of former President Trump in the 2024 presidential election. Cheney has not made a clear position on the matter, but he is not ruling out the possibility of his running for president.
Keeping up with the news, today we learned regarding the U.S. Congressman Liz Cheney as the person in the news and the situation of the Ukraine war that has been going on for over six months.