While much of the recent news has been focused on the search for Malaysian Airlines Flight 370, the conflict between Ukraine and Russia has been heating up.

Amid the protests that are taking place in the eastern region of Ukraine, cnn.com reports that commercial and classified satellites being used by the U.S. have revealed a build-up of up to 40,000 Russian troops just over the eastern border of Ukraine.

These images also coincide with NATO’s recent assessment, cnn.com reported. The build-up over the border is enough to speak for itself, but the fact that Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, is claiming the build-up is due to military exercises seems to be far from the truth. I mean really, we know what you are doing Vladimir.

What I cannot understand is why.

According to cnn.com, Putin originally began his conflict with the Crimea region of Ukraine for the protection of the Russian citizens in Crimea and to take back what Russia claims was rightfully theirs.

However, after paying close attention to this conflict, I do not think the Russian citizens were ever at risk. More so, if anything, I feel that the Ukrainian citizens have the most to lose. Ukraine has continuously refused to back down to Russia, but without the help of outside forces, how long can Ukraine really last?

With that being said, my concern with the U.S.’s future involvement in this conflict is growing by the day. Anything can happen in the coming days and weeks between Ukraine and Russia. Sadly, I do not think this situation is going to deescalate.

As long as the U.S. is involved in the negotiation process of trying to deescalate the situation between the two countries, the more likely the U.S. is going to take part in military actions.
Hopefully, that will not be the case. War with Russia is something we as a country do not need.

Many SU students were not around for the Cold War standoff between the U.S. and Russia, and to be frank, I do not think I would have wanted to be. From what I have read, and from what I have been told, it was a scary world to be in.

Well, I hate to break it to you, but the world is an even scarier place to be in today. We must find a way to settle this dispute, because if we do not, it may be the U.S. with its back against the wall.