To my shame, I see / The imminent death of twenty thousand men, / That, for a fantasy and trick of fame, / Go to their graves like beds, fight for a plot / Whereon the numbers cannot try the cause, / Which is not tomb enough and continent / To hide the slain?

(Hamlet Act 4, Scene 4) 

These are still uncertain times, and after thousands of years of world history, the reality ongoing in Ukraine is a convoluted circumstance of events reminding us of a Ukraine under the dominion of the Soviet Union until 1991 when Ukraine gained its independence and the Soviet Union dissolved.

Fast forward to 2014 when Russia took control, by force, over Crimea in the southern part of Ukraine. Russia’s Putin worried Ukraine would join NATO a (military alliance) and would be a threat to Russia. 

With this latest invasion of Ukraine, things are different. While the current economic conditions, and the country’s infrastructure, are shredded, the battles have nonetheless been fiercely contested. According to an April 26th Forbes news article, each side’s fighting forces have suffered greater than 10,000 deaths, while over 3,000 Ukrainian civilians have also died. Thousands more have suffered injures.    

President Zelensky, a former comedian, has a strong ambition to win this crucial war, which Putin believed would be won easily and swiftly. 

Thousands of Ukrainian citizens have fled to Poland, which has offered shelter for woman and children, while adult men were held back to fight for their country, along with various women who also set their heart to fight. Others who couldn’t flee stayed in bomb shelters. 

As of this writing, and according to a May 11, 2022 NPR news article, between humanitarian aid and weapons, the U.S. is spending $100 million dollars a day to support Ukraine. Military support includes the following: grenade launchers, rifles, pistols, machine guns, and shotguns; millions of rounds of small arms ammunition and mortar rounds; and body armor and helmets. 

Russia’s Putin however raised the stakes beyond conventional warfare. According to an April 20th story from Stanford University News, back in late February, “Putin publicly ordered his Minister of Defense to put Russian nuclear forces into ‘special combat readiness.’ He also warned in a televised statement that if another nation interferes in the operation, ‘Russia will respond immediately, and the consequences will be such as you have never seen in your entire history.’” 

U.S. President Joe Biden, who in February condemned Russia’s “unprovoked and unjustified attack by Russian military forces,” continues to push for additional aid to Ukraine. 

The future of a free Ukraine remains in doubt.