Former Ukrainian prime minister explains ‘why the world should care’ about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine

Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman on Tuesday warned the world that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s expansionist ambitions will not stop with the occupation of Ukraine.

In an editorial published in Newsweek, Groysman explained that Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is the result of a decades-long “proxy fight between the East and West” that stems from Putin’s “maniacal and egotistical attempt at setting a new world order in which Russia is the conductor.”

This new war, Groysman stressed, will affect every person on Earth.

The conflict that Putin has engineered “is not only playing out on our TVs. It will soon impact the daily lives of every citizen around the globe. A war will disrupt supply chains, the global economy, stock markets, COVID-19 recovery, and travel. But even more than that it will set a tone and precedent to how the world acts,” he wrote.

Groysman believes that if Putin manages to successfully reincorporate Ukraine into Russian territory, he “will simply become unquenched in his search for land far greater than that of Ukraine. This is why the world should care.”

Putin, Groysman continued, has “never honored any international agreement” or “respected democracy and the rule of law” or “human dignity or rights.” The Russian autocrat’s goal of revamping the borders of the former Soviet Union along with his commitment to a “no limits” alliance with China further endanger the planet because Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping are “two people who condone genocide, imperialism, world instability, and military and economic blackmail.”

And if the West fails to contain Putin’s aggression, Groysman predicted that “there is little doubt that other bad actors in the world, including China and Iran, will test the limits of the league of democratic nations.”

But Groysman also offered some recommendations for how Western democracies can fight back against dictatorial mischief.

“First, we must rid the world of authoritarianism. Our fight is not a fight against Russia and the Russian people but a fight against two evils—Putin and an authoritarian system of government that keeps the Russian people in economic and social bondage,” Groysman wrote. “Second, we must be strong. Strong economically. Strong militarily and most importantly, strong through togetherness.”

International unity behind the cause of freedom “is about the world, for the Bible tells us that a house divided will fall and history has many examples of that,” Groysman concluded. “Only together can Ukraine and the league of democratic nations bring an end not only to war in Ukraine, but an end to Putin's authoritarianism to the world.”