I found a lot of the articles this week incredibly engaging and particularly useful in connecting some of our past readings and clips to what was being discussed pertaining to Ukraine.

The first article I read, “Ukraine war: Putin has redrawn the world – but not the way he wanted” by BBC’s reporter Alan Little was interesting in the way that it went about calling out the people. When Little writes, “If these tactics are unfamiliar to you, you haven’t been paying attention” I found this quote so incredibly interesting because it calls out those who have not been made aware or are paying attention to what is going on around them. In a way, it’s calling out these people and making fun of them, calling out their naivety and asking them to wake up and take in what is going on. How much of what is going on is a byproduct of people not paying attention? Are people not paying attention to the route because things are only escalating and getting worse? If this is the case, should we ensure that we pay attention to make certain that things are not escalating and that money doesn’t continue to be laundered and used fraudulently?

At the end of the day, we can understand that many of these war trends or conflicts come down to wanting freedom from another entity and feeling as though they have to push back against governing bodies to achieve that freedom. This is seen especially in the case of Ukraine and Russia currently. However, upon further investigation, we can understand that history repeats itself the same way these conflicts between varying countries repeat themselves. In a sense, complete denomination or control over another country is achieved by stripping it of its identity or narrative. In the case of Ukraine, this is something that they are currently fearful of and believe is happening to them. The BBC article explicitly states, “Ukraine’s identity, too, will be strengthened further by the Ukraine’s have fought.” In order to sustain its identity, Ukraine needs to continuously push back and stand up for itself, fighting against Russian suppression.

“The Russian invasion of Ukraine has brought up an old question” was also incredibly engaging from the very beginning. I felt as thought the lead was incredibly engaging and immediately caught my attention by prompting “Is aggressive war legal?” This opening lead prompts an interesting question about the legality of war. Often, we think of war as just a byproduct of differences between two different countries and groups of people. However, when does the legal point of view interfere with the law? Can actual charges be made regarding the law? How are these boundaries set up, and how do we make sense of them in the context of defending ourselves in war?

“crimes against humanity, genocide and the aim to make war itself illegal, to hold leaders accountable for the crime of aggression, says Douglas.” This quote in itself makes me wonder how we would even go about making war itself illegal and how we would get other countries and people to agree to those standards. To a certain extent, it’s impossible, with the foundation of war being based on arguing and misunderstandings/disagreements. It seems silly to think that a comprehensive agreement could be made regarding the legality of war.

With the article titled, “How an Innovative Algorithm Helps Ukrainian Refugees Find New Homes”by Brian Zumhagen focusing primarily on some of the new systems in place to prioritize the preferences of migrants my attention automatically connected this reading to some of our previous readings.

With established systems in place, like the ones that Max and Yuna utilized to resettle, migrant stationing can be streamlined into a much faster process that makes things easier for both the migrants and the host country. In addition, having these set programs and foundational structures in place before migrants come over can alleviate the stress placed on systems that might be full or abundant with too many people. This technological process and form-filling process make me think of the influx of migrants that New York is experiencing. Especially when thinking about the bus route episodes and content we read and watched last class, I am left wondering if some of these programs are already in place to help alleviate the stress of those coming over or if they are in the process of developing systems to make processing migrants easier.

Another massive part of RUTH is the idea of transparency in this process. Often, I feel it is easy to look at just how efficient a process like this will make things. However, the idea of transparency and ensuring that migrants can be honest and effectively communicate everything that they need in their designated forms is also huge in ensuring primitive safety measures and long-lasting stations for these migrants upon arrival.