Ukraine war: One year on

It’s been one year since we woke up to the news that Russia had invaded Ukraine. It has been a long year and, in spite of all the efforts that have been put it, there is no sign that the war will end anytime soon.

As the world was on the way to recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic, which brought so much distress to people who lost loved ones and gave big blows to the world economy as a whole, it was hit by yet another crisis, this time man-made.

Maybe Russia thought that Ukraine would have keeled over wuickly, and the war would not have taken long. But the Ukraine has fought back, and many countries have stood in support.

Thousands of lives have been lost, millions have been displaced. There has been so much devastation and it will take years, when the war is over, for Ukraine to be rebuilt.

There is also no doubt that the inflation that we have seen over the past months is, in part, a result of what is happening in Ukraine. That prices were already going up before the invasion is a given, but the Russian invasion of Ukraine compounded the situation.

Let us remember that Ukraine is a top producer and exporter of steel, coal, fuel and petroleum products, chemicals, machinery and transport equipment, and grains like barley, corn and wheat. The war has negatively affected the normal business, and as a result the price of such products has been on the rise.

The cost of energy has also been hit, with consumers in many countries having to deal with a sharp increase in the products they need to keep warm in winter and cooler in summer, and to travel and transport goods.

The Maltese government, so far, has chosen to absorb the costs, but few think that this is a financial burden on the whole country and, one day, we will have to pay it back. Until now, we are happy that we are paying the same price for fuel and power as we did in 2020, but there will come a time when something will have to give. That €1.5 million a day that the government is eating up to pay for the extra cost of energy and fuel will have to come from somewhere.

There is always hope that there will be an end to this in the short term, but at this point in time it does not appear likely. If anything, matters seem to get more complicated.

“It is going to be a long war,” said Michal Baranowski, managing director of the German Marshall Fund East. “If we don’t have the political leadership and if we don’t explain to our societies why this war is critical for their security ... then Ukraine would be in trouble.”