Some are indignant at the attention paid to the war in Ukraine compared to other burning conflicts. Why does the war in Ethiopia not receive similar attention? What about the war in Yemen? Why pay so much attention to the Ukrainian conflict?
The simple answer to this question is that the war in Ukraine could directly oppose several nuclear powers: Russia on one side and the United States, France and the United Kingdom on the other.
This is not the case with any conflict of recent years.
For example, no NATO country was directly threatened by a nuclear power during the wars in the Middle East.
The risks of this war degenerating into the 3rd World War are real, even if the leaders of the NATO countries and those of Russia remain very cautious and show that they want to avoid such an escalation.
On the other hand, Ukraine belongs to the vast basin of civilization that the historian Fernand Braudel identified with the Mediterranean world. The countries bordering the Black Sea have been connected to the Mediterranean Sea since antiquity. It is normal that the States resulting from this world are more preoccupied with the wars which occur there.
annexation war
The war in Ukraine is also different from most other wars because it is a war of annexation. Putin’s Russia even denies the existence of Ukraine. This kind of war of annexation had not been seen in Europe since World War II.
This war opposes the 9th most populous country in the world, Russia, to the 35th, Ukraine. Such numerous populations rarely clash militarily.
The war in Ukraine is disrupting global economic circuits. Deciding on massive sanctions against a country as important as Russia has nothing in common with the sanctions imposed on North Korea or Iran.
The effect of these sanctions is amplified by social networks and potential consumer boycotts, a new phenomenon on this scale.
The war in Ukraine is thus contributing powerfully to the risks of recession in the world economy.
Democracies versus dictatorships
Finally, the war in Ukraine pits a people who want to remain independent and democratic against a dictator who dreams of depriving this people of their sovereignty and freedom.
Therefore, the Ukrainian war has become a symbol of the struggle between democratic countries, which have become much weaker in recent years, and dictatorships, which have become much stronger during this period.
It is regrettable that other wars throughout the world, which claim more victims than that in Ukraine, have not received or do not receive as much media and political attention as they should. But it must be recognized that the war in Ukraine is more serious, more dangerous and that it mobilizes more countries than most wars since 1945 have done.