Fleeing Ukrainian Refugees Beg the West to ‘Please Close the Sky,’ Get Tougher With Russia – Opinion

The bungling president of the United States continues to waver on the imposition of biting sanctions on Russian oil exports, yet jets home to Delaware — for the second straight weekend — For a few days of total relaxation.

The impotent yet smug as hell United Nations Security Council (of which Russia is a permanent member) will meet on Monday to discuss Vladimir Putin’s brutal invasion of Ukraine. As the Russian onslaught goes on, terrified Ukrainian refugees appeal to the West for tougher measures against Russia.

Is there anything wrong with this? Each and every bit.

Four chilling words encapsulate the death and destruction visited upon the proud yet terrified Ukrainian people, as Russian missiles continue to rain down on their cities: “Please close the sky.”

As reported by Reuters on Saturday, Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has created more than one million refugees, the majority of whom are fleeing into Central Europe. At Poland’s Medyka crossing — its busiest — along its roughly 310-mile border with Ukraine, refugees have been calling for a no-fly zone over Ukraine — which NATO “powers” have so far ruled out, out of fear of escalating the war beyond Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has also pushed for NATO to impose a no-fly zone over his country, while Putin on Saturday said Moscow will view any attempt by third-party countries to establish a no-fly zone over Ukraine as active “participation in the armed conflict” that would “bring catastrophic results not only to Europe but to the whole world,” as reported by Fox News,

Putin, who’s not an unraveling nutjob [sarc] at all, also called Western sanctions against Russia “akin to a declaration of war.”

Eighteen-year-old Solomiya Zdryko, who fled to Poland from Lviv in western Ukraine, poignantly pleaded with NATO countries to “please close the sky,” as quoted by Reuters:

I know that it’s not possible for us to join NATO but at least close the sky because people are dying. It’s great that the whole world is watching us and supporting us, but it really needs to stop.

According to Reuters, Poland, whose Ukrainian community of around one million people, is the region’s largest and has accepted nearly 800,000 Ukrainian refugees since the start of the Russian invasion on Feb. 24, Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Paweł Szefernaker told reporters. In the past 24 hours, more than 106,000 people arrived in Ukraine from abroad. This is the largest number since the conflict.

Another thing is that approximately 140.000 Ukrainians fled the country to Hungary after the conflict began. 200,000 fled Romania to escape the fighting, and around 50,000 reached the Czech Republic. A majority of refugees are women and children because conscription-age men have to fight and stay.

As Olha, a refugee, broke down in tears and echoed Zdryko’s words to Reuters, Olha was unable to identify herself.

If they were able to close the skies, they would be able to do much more. However, I believe that Ukraine has been greatly helped by all nations and for this I am grateful.

They are people who have lived real lives that were shattered. This reality is sometimes lost behind words on a computer screen. It could be lost amongst countless news reports or untold number of quotes by other people from different circumstances.

However, it’s heart-wrenching. It’s all there.

This is because there is no simple answer. As a result, the “solutions” espoused by know-it-all political pundits and social media keyboard warriors of various political predispositions are varied — and hilarious — as well.

I got into a bit of a “discussion” with a Facebook “friend” who remains convinced that America has not only a moral obligation to defend Ukraine at virtually any costs, but a Legal one, as well, having “promised” to do so, and as a result, should in return fire missiles into Russia. Many have suggested that Russia is equally guilty of failing to comply with the agreement. No, really.

On the other hand, we have near-Russian apologists trotting onto our TV screens on a nightly basis (I watch ZERO political news or punditry) — Fox News host Tucker Carlson comes to mind — who have all but sung the praises of Vladimir Putin and Russia since Minimum the early days of the Russian “collusion” hoax. Carlson announced the following on February 22,

You can’t say it enough, Ukraine is not a democracy. … In American terms, you would call Ukraine a tyranny.

Really? “You can’t say it enough”? Why would you say that?

As a sort of twisted rationale that makes it “less wrong” for Putin’s Red Army to brutalize a neighboring country that poses absolutely no threat to Russia?

Carlson went on:

Technically, Ukraine isn’t a democracy. Democracies don’t arrest political opponents, and they don’t shut down opposition media, both of which Ukraine has done. And by the way, Ukraine is a pure client state of the United States State Department — again, that’s fine. If you feel you are capable of doing a better job than the Ukrainians, we don’t mind. Just don’t tell us it’s a democracy.

Tucker: Do you obsess over much?

These are the facts

Ukraine exhibits many of the characteristics of democracy. Popular elections elect the president who serves as head of state and commander-in chief. A mix of proportional and single-seat representation makes up the legislative body. Head of government and prime minister are elected by a majority in the legislature. The president nominates members of the Supreme Court to serve as their heads of government.

One can argue that Ukraine is not a “democracy” in the sense of Jeffersonian Democracy or even Jacksonian Democracy, but a “tyranny”? Please. I’ll buy “fledgling democracy,” but in contrast with Vladimir Putin’s Russia? Again, please.

Let’s get to the bottom of it:

There are many dead children, men and women from Ukraine. Russian missiles killed thousands. As well as from cluster and thermobaric bombs. While NATO forces choose whether to “close the sky” over the war-torn country, the decent among us will continue to stand with — or for — the brave people of Ukraine.

Debating the definition of “democracy” notwithstanding.