The situation in Ukraine now assumes various different shapes and forms, and we're exploring many angles here as well. To give us the military perspective, I'm glad to welcome back retired media general Harshad Kakar, who during his illustrious career has held a variety of appointments across India. And he also served as part of the United Nations peacekeeping operations in Mozambique. General Cocker, it's an honor to welcome you back on Square
The fact that we've got to note that this is an issue which has been brewing for the last almost about seven or eight years and it should have been resolved by discussion post the winter on fire or the uprising in Ukraine in 2013 14, the annexation of Crimea and the declaration of the independent republics
Rishap Vats
@Vats_Rishap · 5:00
I think a lot of times our discussions around what is happening is limited to the military aspect of what is happening. Now, there is no doubt that that is very important, of course, because that decides the fate of millions of people. The human catastrophe that we are witnessing is unbearable. Of course, it's very heartwrenching to see that
Rishap Vats
@Vats_Rishap · 5:00
I think transnational organization and even countries who are not, let's say, involved should actually take the mantle and try to do the best they can, diplomatically and otherwise, to persuade the actors involved to see sense. Of course, it's not going to be that easy. It's easier said than done. Of course, geopolitical interest matter, but I think this is something that we have to we have to look at and countries like India, of course, can play a huge role
Nobody wants war. I think war is the last thing that the world is looking at. But at the same time, we've got to realize that there are geopolitical constraints, which nations which have the power it should have pushed. Well, in time, the fact is they did not. If you look at the comments that have been flowing from 1998, from the time the NATO expansion began, but there were concerns in Russia. Take the 2007 Munich conference, security conference
Pooja Bhatt
@DrPoojaBhatt · 5:00
I think not much help is coming along and Bhatt is why I think this power equation will bring a lot of strategic implications towards the end, which I will just discuss in some time. But before this, I will want to bring notice to how this crisis also has an implication of IR that we understand as of date. So the entire focus goes back to the winning of realism
Pooja Bhatt
@DrPoojaBhatt · 4:59
So in continuation to what I was saying earlier about India abstaining from its voting at the UN against Russia was very clear that India has its relationship with Russia, Russia India's defense supplier. India buys most of its at least 60% of defense equipment from Russia right from aircraft to submarines to the guns and all other things. Secondly, Russia is also helping us build a currency nuclear plant which is again a very big thing for us. Third is in Russia access are bulwark against China
Swell Team
@Swell · 0:15
So at that point, Russia invaded both Qazi and South Session and continued on and declared war on Georgia or kind of war, very much a special military operation. Again, precision airstrikes, precision missiles and attacking military targets, avoiding massive civilian casualties. And in twelve days after the war, Sakurasfiri, the Georgian President, surrendered. This is what Putin was probably hoping Ukraine would do
Until we end up in a nuclear conflict. Obviously we are doing everything we can to avoid that. And it's why help is coming the way of NGOs equipment. But no soldiers. Because neither side wants a World War Three here. And there will be a very small chance of it ever happening. Because both sides are doing everything they have. And Russia is in contact with us
To sort of begin to wrap this up, though. This is the question that we are facing or the Ukrainians are facing at the moment as much as the Ukrainians have done very well. The Russians have not thrown in their weight at Ukraine yet. And what I mean mean by that is they aren't moving with these combined arms doctrines. We haven't seen them really killing civilians in large amounts, and that's deliberate. We're right now seeing casualties of sort of 300 civilians in a day
Sudha Varadarajan
@sudha · 3:10
The second thing and this is a big one and I have scoured many articles, but I have not found a good reason to this is why is it that the Ukrainians have not been able to destroy the Russian convoys which are sitting Ducks? And I understand that they may not have the control of the airspace to be able to do it easily, but they still have a large number of anti tank weapons and people personnel