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by Chris Ezekiel

Seeing footage from Ukraine of indiscriminate bombing of residential areas, babies and children being killed, families eeing their homes in fear, young and old taking up arms to defend their country and men building trenches waiting for the enemy to advance, one can’t help but draw parallels with the First and Second World Wars.

I’m incredulous that after all the sacri ces of those con icts and other wars that followed that, in 2022, we are again faced with a tyrannical dictator hell-bent on European destruction.

We owe it to those who made the ultimate sacri ce to protect our freedoms to stand up to this aggression and support Ukraine with whatever assistance it needs.

At the time of writing, that is the immediate implementation of a no- y zone, more military equipment and, of course, humanitarian support and homes for refugees.

I wasn’t around during the Second World War, but growing up in the East End I heard the frightening stories from my nan and others who lived through the blitz.

I also heard stories of patriotism, steadfastness, heroism, and community spirit. The Ukrainian people are displaying those same resolute attributes.

The UK and other free nations stood-up to an evil regime then, the cost was huge of course, but freedom won and we must now bring that same united spirit to support a nation in need and to protect those hard-won freedoms again.

Much of the world has united around sanctions and supplying humanitarian aid and some military equipment.

While sanctions will have an impact – unfortunately on innocent Russian families as well as those in power – they won’t work on their own. There is certainly more we can do.

One immediate action we should take is to stop buying Russian oil and gas. I know energy prices are already hurting many people, but I’m sure most people would accept the sacri ce of even higher energy prices as well as the risk of power cuts.

I appreciate the risks of more direct military involvement, with Russia having a vast nuclear arsenal.

However, I believe the consequences of not supporting Ukraine militarily will only mean delaying the inevitability of ghting this evil regime at some point in the future.

We are faced with a free and democratic European country being attacked and innocent civilians being bombed, by an army acting in the name of the Russian people who have not been told the truth.

The Russian people are being fed lies and disinformation, so much so that independent news channels have been shut down and social media blocked.

Clamping down on free speech has gone even further with the enacting of a law to punish anyone spreading “false information” about its Ukraine invasion on pain of a 15-year prison sentence.

Seeing Russian protesters still prepared to stand up and risk imprisonment gives

21

Days since Russia began its invasion of Ukraine, if you’re reading this on this paper’s rst day of publication

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has drawn worldwide condemnation and many are asking what more should be done to in uence the outcome of the war in eastern Europe

a time to

us all hope that change could happen from within Russia itself.

But we cannot rely on this, as the humanitarian catastrophe is already growing and will get even worse without more support for Ukraine.

This isn’t just a war between Russia and Ukraine, and it’s a mistake to think about it being a dispute between Russia and NATO.

This is a battle between the Putin regime that wants to annex democratic countries like Ukraine, and the free world. Putin wants to turn the clock back to the era of the Soviet Union.

If he’s successful in Ukraine, then he’ll carry on rebuilding the former Soviet Union with repressed, totalitarian and autocratic policies.

We also need to consider what the consequences of an appeasement strategy will be on our relationship with China.

Allowing nuclear states to have an untouchable status despite executing such atrocities sets a dangerous precedent.

Inevitably in 2022, technology beyond the battle eld is playing a signi cant role. Russia has been using cyber war tactics for some time, and there’s strong evidence of its involvement in cyber activities to in uence elections in Western democracies.

Ukraine’s cyber security authority says it is ghting a war in the digital realm, as well as on the ground.

Since the invasion began, this authority has launched the IT Army Of Ukraine, which has been carrying out cyber-attacks on Russian targets.

They call it “cyber-resistance”. Other groups, including the hacker collective Anonymous, have joined the ght, declaring cyber war on Putin.

There is no doubt the Putin regime is responsible for numerous war crimes. With smartphones now ubiquitous, evidence is being recorded and will hopefully help to eventually secure convictions against those responsible.

Propaganda has also taken an even more sinister turn with Russian troll farms using AI-generated faces to simulate the identities of Ukrainian journalists to try and discredit the state.

The world order changed on February 24 and that same united front that secured our modern freedoms in 1945 must once again be shown on the world stage.

Chris Ezekiel is founder and CEO of customer engagement solutions specialist Creative Virtual based at West India Quay’s Cannon Workshops

Follow @creativevirtual and @chrisezekiel on Twitter

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