Considering Russia's past military effort of taking Crimea in 2014, their Ukrainian conquest has gone quite differently. Russia's justification of their actions stems from propaganda painting Ukrainians victims of a fascist regime. Obviously, with the developed technologies and tools we have today, it's not as easy for the lies to pass as it would have been in the soviet days. Most of the world has taken Ukraine's side, and the battle is proving to be much longer and more difficult than any Russian intelligence could have theorized.

Consequences of the War -

Everyone around the world has been feeling the effects of the Ukrainian War. The most notable of these effects is evidently the supply chain. The trade flow of essential resources such as fuel, wheat, and electronics took a great toll from the war. The sanctions placed on Russia against their export of oil has even been named as one of the key factors towards rising gas prices (though it's impossible to scapegoat just one factor for that dilemma).

The supply chain debacle has also contributed to our inflation issues here in the U.S. Just like rising gas prices, that too can be pinned on other global and national factors as well. This includes government spending for Covid relief, spending for Ukrainian aid, and numerous other projects and issues.

If you're unfamiliar with the effects of the supply chain issues, you probably have noticed food service companies across the nation struggling to have all menu items available. Even the school cafeteria program struggled to accumulate something as specific as pizza crust for a while last year. This all had to do with the supply chain issues I mentioned earlier along with the wheat shortage. Ukraine is the fifth largest producer of wheat in the world, and 40% of the World Food Program's wheat supply comes from Ukraine. [see Wilson Center link]. It's impossible not to feel the ripple effects of the war with these shortages when the whole country has more or less been forced to halt many exporting operations.

In Review -

It's important to understand the consequences of this war as Americans. It's easy to look past the severity of foreign country affairs, but lots of Americans come from Ukrainian descent, and that factor has been detrimental in rallying support for the country in need. It's unfortunate that that mentality couldn't apply for so many other global affairs in the last few years, but the support gathered behind Ukraine is unique and truly wonderful in height of all the nonsense. Understanding what this war is and the effects it has on all of us is detrimental to how we make decisions moving forward.

Sources: Dan Sabbagh - Ukraine counterattack takes Russia – and everyone else – by surprise [2022, The Guardian] ://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/sep/08/ukraine-russia-war-military-success-kyiv-counterattack-strategy

Ripple effects from Russia-Ukraine war test global economies by Beth Stackpole [mitsloan.mit.edu 2022] https://mitsloan.mit.edu/ideas-made-to-matter/ripple-effects-russia-ukraine-war-test-global-economies#:~:text=The%20Russia%2DUkraine%20war%20is,MIT%20Center%20for%20Transportation%20and

Forty Percent of the World Food Program's wheat supply comes from Ukraine, Ambassador Mark Green [2022 wilsoncenter.org] https://www.wilsoncenter.org/blog-post/forty-percent-world-food-programs-wheat-supplies-come-ukraine