Both Russia and Ukraine were part of the USSR. When the Soviet Union collapsed, each became a sovereign state that should have developed a policy of good neighbourliness with respect for each other’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. They should have been examples of how state to state, state to people and people to people relationship should have been built to enjoy peace and prosperity.
The war that now rages between the two countries is destroying lives and properties, especially of Ukraine, but not leaving Russia untouched. The number of young people dying in the battlefield is unacceptable. Now instruments of mass destruction are now being considered to be used in the war. This is putting the whole of Europe into a war trajectory that its leaders should be wary of. Germany has a history that has made its leaders to be wary of war and the Russian leader should also not misread the steps taken by the German leader at this critical moment. A war that leads to mutual extinction is premeditated suicide and genocide at the same time. The time to put an end to the war in Ukraine and the Middle East is now. Any delay is to sleep walk into war that could have catastrophic consequences.
