5 Ways Ukraine’s War Changed the World

LONDON (AP) — The war has been a disaster for Ukraine and a crisis for the world. The world has since become a more unstable and fearful place Russia attacked its neighbor on February 24, 2022.

after a year, thousands of Ukrainian civilians died, and countless buildings were destroyed. Thousands of soldiers on each side were killed or seriously wounded. Beyond Ukraine’s borders, the invasion has shattered European security, rekindled nations’ ties to one another, and torn apart a tightly knit global economy.

Here are five ways that war changed the world:

Return of the European War

Three months before the invasion, then-British Prime Minister Boris Johnson quipped that the British Army needed more heavy weapons. “The old idea of ​​fighting big tanks on European landmasses,” he said, “is over.”

Johnson has now called on the UK to send more battle tanks to help Ukraine repel Russian forces.

Despite the role of new technologies such as satellites and drones, this 21st century conflict in many ways resembles that of the 20th century. Fighting continues in Ukraine’s eastern Donbass region A brutal slogMud, trenches and bloody infantry attacks are reminiscent of the First World War.

The conflict has sparked a new arms race that reminds some analysts of World War II in the 1930s. Russia has mobilized millions of troops and aims to expand its military by 1 million to 1.5 million soldiers. US ramps up weapons production to replace stockpiles sent to Ukraine France plans to increase military spending by a third by 2030, while Germany lifted its long-standing ban on sending weapons to conflict zones and sent missiles and tanks to Ukraine.

Before the war, many observers predicted the military would move towards more advanced technology and cyber warfare and less reliance on tanks or artillery, said Patrick Bury, a senior lecturer in security at the University of Bath.

But guns and ammunition are the most important weapons in Ukraine.

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“It’s showing at least for the moment that in Ukraine, conventional warfare — state-on-state — is back,” Bury said.

Alliances are tested and rigorous

Russian President Vladimir Putin hoped the attack would divide the West and weaken NATO. Instead, Military alliances have been revived. There is renewed purpose in a group formed to counter the Soviet Union and two new aspiring members in Finland and Sweden, which shed decades of disorganization and asked to join NATO as a bulwark against Russia.

The 27-nation European Union has hit Russia with tough sanctions and sent billions in aid to Ukraine. The battle has put the Brexit standoff in perspective, thawing diplomatic ties between the bloc and awkward former member Britain.

“The EU is taking sanctions, quite serious sanctions, as it should be. Michael Clarke, former chief defense analyst at the Royal United Services Institute think tank, said the United States had come back to Europe with a vengeance in a way we never imagined.

NATO member states have poured billions of dollars worth of weapons and equipment into Ukraine. The alliance has put pressure on its eastern flank, and countries close to Ukraine and Russia, including Poland and the Baltic states, have wooed more hesitant NATO and EU allies, potentially shifting Europe’s center of power eastward.

There are some cracks in the unity. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, Putin’s closest ally in the EU, has lobbied against sanctions on Moscow, refused to send arms to Ukraine and withheld an aid package from the bloc for Kiev.

Western unity will come under greater pressure as the conflict escalates.

“Russia is planning a long war,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said in late 2022, but the alliance was also prepared for “the long haul.”

A new iron curtain

The war made Russia A pariah in the West. Its oligarchs have been sanctioned and its businesses blacklisted, and international brands including McDonald’s and Ikea have disappeared from the country’s streets.

Still Moscow Not completely friendless. Russia has strengthened economic ties with China, although Beijing has kept its distance from the war and has so far not sent weapons. The United States has recently expressed concern that that could change.

China is closely watching a conflict that could serve as a boost or a warning to Beijing about any attempt to restore self-ruled Taiwan by force.

Putin has strengthened military ties with international outcasts North Korea and Iran, which supply armed drones that Russia drops over infrastructure in Ukraine. Moscow continues to expand its economic and military influence in Africa and the Middle East. Russia’s Wagner mercenary group has grown stronger in conflicts from the Donbas to the Sahel.

In echoes of the Cold War, the world is divided into two camps, with many countries including densely populated India hedging their bets to see who comes out on top.

Tracy German, professor of conflict and security at King’s College London, said the conflict had widened the rift between the “US-led liberal international order” on the one hand and emboldened an angry Russia and rising superpower China on the other.

A troubled and transformed economy

Economic effects of war Felt from the cool homes of Europe to the food markets of Africa.

Before the war, EU countries imported about half of their natural gas and a third of their oil from Russia. The attack, and sanctions imposed on Russia in response, pushed energy prices on a scale not seen since the 1970s.

The war disrupted world trade that was still recovering from the pandemic. Food prices have risen, as Russia and Ukraine are major suppliers of wheat and sunflower oil, and Russia is the world’s top fertilizer producer.

Ships carrying grain continue to sail from Ukraine under a fragile UN-brokered deal, and prices have fallen to record levels. But food remains a geopolitical football. Russia has blamed the West for high prices, while Ukraine and its allies have accused Russia of using hunger as a weapon.

The war has “really highlighted the fragility” of an interconnected world, as the pandemic did, German said, and the full economic impact has yet to be felt.

The war also hinders efforts to combat climate change, Driving a rise Largely polluting coal consumption in Europe. Yet Europe’s rush away from Russian oil and gas may accelerate the transition to renewable energy sources faster than countless warnings about the dangers of global warming. The International Energy Agency says the world will add as much renewable energy in the next five years as it did in the last 20 years.

A new era of uncertainty

The conflict is a stark reminder that individuals have little control over the course of history. No one knows that better than the 8 million Ukrainians who have been forced to flee home and country for new lives in communities in Europe and beyond.

For millions less directly affected, the sudden collapse of peace in Europe brought uncertainty and anxiety.

Putin’s veiled threat to use nuclear weapons if the conflict escalates has revived fears of nuclear war that have been dormant since the Cold War. Fighting rages around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, raising the specter of a new Chernobyl.

But the conflict also brought reminders that, sometimes, individual human actions make all the difference. Defense analyst Clarke said there was a moment a day after the attack, when Zelensky filmed himself outside Kiev and vowed not to leave the city.

“It was important to show that Kiev will fight,” Clarke said. “And with that, of course, the United States, Joe Biden got behind it. If those two things hadn’t happened — Zelensky and then Biden’s decision — the Russians would have won.

“That Zelensky moment will go down in history as very, very important.”

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