The 21st century did not start on a promising note .The previous century was also no better and today we see a glut of violent crisis stretching from Syria to Ukraine. The world also saw the momentous worldwide observation of the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. In the same month the head of the United Nations refugee agency stated that the agency “has never had to address so much human misery in its 64-year history”
Just because the past is commemorated does not mean that all the parties agree on a point. The Auschwitz anniversary was the occasion for an inept tussle between Poland, Ukraine and Russia over who exactly liberated it the most.
Behind the squabble over the largest Nazi Death Camp, a grim war is raging in Ukraine and Eastern Ukraine has become one of the most dangerous hotspots since the end of the cold war. The stakes are phenomenally high with no side budging from its much publicized positions. Putin declares the actions by the West as imperialistic and the West continues to pour scorn on Putin’s aggression.
Officially the war has claimed 5350 lives but this is just the tip of the ice berg. Unofficial sources put the death toll to 50000. Only the dead saw the end of the war, for the hundreds of crippled and displaced, it is a never ending misery.
Mikhail Gorbachev, crucial in ending the Cold War, is now warning of a hot war between the West and Russia. The war in Ukraine is fast turning into a catalyst for a major shift. Crude propaganda seeks to impose a view that World War II was a valiant fight between Nazism and the Soviet Union. It seeks to reduce the other players into unimportant roles. Putin is following the same strategy in Ukraine.