“Making an exception in Putin’s case and making ‘him’ the war criminal we can’t tolerate seems foolish when he can hold the free world hostage to nuclear blackmail or with an energy embargo. Treating Putin with permanent, irreversible enmity means living in a very different kind of world – it amounts to severing all diplomatic ties and treating him like an enemy combatant in a shooting war, before the shooting, like an undeclared World War III. We should not go down that road unless absolutely, inexorably forced to it.”
In addition to alleged war crimes, Russia’s unprovoked military invasion, which began Feb. 24, has resulted in an overwhelming refugee crisis. More than 10.5 million people – nearly a quarter of Ukraine’s population –0. have been displaced either within the country or abroad as refugees, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported March 31. About 13 million people are estimated to be in urgent need of humanitarian assistance throughout Ukraine, according to the UNHCR.
This article originally appeared here.
