A new fight  

In our fight against the pandemic, we are currently in a more or less calm state. The decrease in the number of COVID-infected patients as well as the lifting of restrictions demonstrate this. The situation is significantly better now than it was months or years ago when the pandemic began. However, no one can claim that the fight has ended. Another fight has erupted in our midst. A war that, like the virus, is steadily spreading to other parts of the globe. And this is the fight to put an end to that war.

The conflict between Russia and Ukraine has had a global impact. Because a country is not isolated but rather dependent on other countries in one way or another, a war between two countries will cause conflict in other countries throughout the world. Even if these two warring countries are thousands of miles away, we are affected directly or indirectly.

Although a war may be short or long in duration, its consequences will continue for centuries. Although the current generation has not been subjected to warfare, it is possible that some of its impacts have had an effect on them. The tragic memories of their forefathers and foremothers have made them wary of wanting to go to war.

Hundreds of civilians have been killed or injured in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, which has seen significant firefights between Russian military and Ukrainian defense forces, as well as an influx of civilian volunteers. More than two million people have fled Ukraine as a result of a worsening humanitarian catastrophe, with migrants streaming into neighboring countries; helpless and innocent children are unfathomable victims, a flagrant anti-children and anti-humanity act.

One thing is becoming clearly obvious about the war in Ukraine: Whoever wins, it will be a disaster for everyone. If Russia captures Kyiv and installs a puppet president, he will be confronted with a large, well-funded insurgency that might endure for years and kill even more Russian forces. If Ukraine continues to repel the invaders, Vladimir Putin will intensify the bombing, killing hundreds more civilians and causing hundreds of thousands more to escape the country as refugees.

And when the war lingers in a certain place, all the more lives are at risk. And history tells us the long-term effects of wars.

We call for an end to hostilities not because we are too tired to fight, but because war is inherently wrong. The world is a dangerous place to live in, not because of terrible individuals, but because of those who do nothing to change it.

Peace cannot be maintained through coercion; it can only be reached through mutual understanding. The greatest individuals in history have been those who have brought people together and led them down the path of cooperation, effectiveness, and peace. Those who have been held in the highest regard by the world have contributed to the unification rather than the severance of interconnection. They have been the harmonizers of differences rather than the destroyers of differences. War can be a necessary evil at times. However, regardless of how important it is, it is always an evil, never a good. And so let’s fight to end it!