Russia vs. Ukraine: What are the Implications and Consequences?

Russia has started invading Ukraine since 8-years ago because of an issue about its illegal
annexation of Crimea, which is originally a part of Ukraine. This war went on for so long until
Vladimir Putin announced on February 24, 2022, that he will launch an assault to defend the
Russian people against the genocide and persecution of Kyiv’s Regime, because of this, Kyiv has
become Russia’s main target (Kirby, J. & Guyer, J. 2022). According to Putin himself, this is not
a war but what he launched was just a “special military operation” to demilitarize and de-
Nazification of Ukraine. This was believed as something that is not true since Russia launched a
full-scale invasion against Ukraine. Attacks came from the land, air, and the sea which is one of
the biggest attacks against a European country. If all of this becomes worse, a world war is most
likely to happen.
Personally, I think Russia, particularly Putin’s, whole intention of starting a war is absurd
yet very alarming for the reason that he wants to disguise it as something light as he just stated
that this is just a “special military operation”, when in fact it is full-scale invasions that affected the
40 million lives of the people in Ukraine. This is not something to be taken lightly because many
innocent people are losing their lives because of this war’s consequences. Another reason why
Russia might be attacking Ukraine is because of its possible alliance with the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization (NATO). This is a military alliance that provides defensive assistance and backing
up countries in case one of them goes into war. NATO has many European countries backing
them up and Russia believes that it would be a problem if Ukraine joins the said alliance because
their motives about the invasion of the country may be harder to achieve.
From all the reasons that the speaker said, I think multiple effects will be most probably
happen if this continues to get worse. One of the most obvious effects of this war is the oil price
surge. Russia is the biggest oil supplier to many countries, so this war has disrupted many oils
exportation. For instance, Stewart (2022) said that the United States is one of the countries that
banned Russian oil and other products coming from the said country. This has caused gas prices
to inflate. In the Philippine setting, prices of petroleum products like gasoline skyrocketed as an
aftermath of this war. According to CNN Philippines (2022), after a week of gas rollback, a fuel
hike is expected to happen again. Unioil Petroleum Philippines stated that diesel prices may
increase from Php 8.00 to Php 8.30 per liter while gasoline may increase from Php 1.90 to Php
2.10. per liter on March 29-April 4 period. The Ukraine refugee crisis has also become a big issue
because many Ukrainian people are fleeing to neighboring countries to escape from the attacks
of Russia. According to Desilver (2022), this refugee crisis has been one of the worst recent
crises. It almost matched the Taliban regime’s data. As of now, the Russian invasion had 3, 725,
806 refugees. The threat to democracy and many human lives were also at cost because of this
war.
For me, this mostly has negative implications and effects. From the very start, I think it is
Russia’s fault since this war started 8 years ago because of illegal annexation which became
worst because of the full-scale attacks on Ukraine. Supplies and goods are declining, there are
lots of jobs lost, inflation, a threat to democracy is the biggest impact of this war. To top it all off,
the loss of human lives became one of the most concerning and alarming worries of this. Some
positive implications can be focused on European countries since there are opportunities for
exportation from big countries like the United States and Japan. Aside from that, I think there are
minimal positive implications of this conflict. Therefore, I believe that this war is still not a good
move as its effects has become a huge obstructive history.

References:
Kirby, J. & Guyer, J. (2022 March 6). Russia’s war in Ukraine, explained. Retrieved from
https://www.vox.com/2022/2/23/2294853

Stewart, E. (2022 March 8). Yup, the Russian oil ban means gas prices are going to suck.
Retrieved from https://www.vox.com/the-goods/22949683/russia-ukraine-gas-prices-oil-inflation-
stock-market.

CNN Philippines. (2022 March 26). Fuel price hike expected next week. Retrieved from
https://www.cnnphilippines.com/news/2022/3/26/Fuel-price-forecast-March-29-April-4.html.

Desilver, D. (2022 March 25). After a month of war, Ukrainian refugee crisis ranks among the
world’s worst in recent history. Retrieved from https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-
tank/2022/03/25/after-a-month-of-war-ukrainian-refugee-crisis-ranks-among-the-worlds-worst-
in-recent-history/.

The Impact of Russian Federation Economic Embargo on the Central and Eastern European
Countries Business Environments - Scientific Figure on ResearchGate. Retrieved from:
https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Positive-and-negatives-effects-of-Russian-and-Ukraine-
crisis-Business-environment_tbl1_283954710 [accessed 26 March, 2022]