By Mihala Manderbach
Families, including hundreds of thousands of children, are being displaced because of the war between Russia and Ukraine. This all started February 24th, 2022, when Russias' Prime Minister Vladimir Putin declared war on Ukraine. Children, even some less than two years old, have been victims of the Russian invasion.
How would you feel as a 6th, 7th or 8th grader; and one day your school was demolished? Okay, you may be saying "YES! No more school!" But seriously, if we woke up the next day and our school was no longer standing, many of us would be really mortified. Now, think about how you would feel as a kid who is displaced, due to an unwarranted invasion. Yeah, I'm sure we would all be scared, just like Ukrainian middle schoolers. This goes to show how lucky we are as citizens of the United States. Understanding how we have a little more than a majority in the world, the United States should continue to send aid to foreign countries that support Ukraine.
As we read more and more articles, we are finding more proof that Russia is claiming crazy, horrible things which are far from the truth. (He is doing things such as targeting children's hospitals to kill many ill children. Ordering for hundreds to be killed, and invading a country for no realistic reason.) Why are innocent children, pregnant mothers, and parents trying to protect their children? On March 8th, 2022, the UN made some modifications by saying that there have been 1,335 casualties so far. (Note: This includes 474 killed and 861 injured, and this is all that has been confirmed.)
Ukraine's First Lady Olena Zelenska shared on her Instagram images of five of the almost 100 killed in the war. One of the pictures even showed 18 month old Kirril. When I saw this, I started crying. If you woke up tomorrow, and your friend was gone, you would want to make a change. It should not be any different for someone you have never met before. Many of you reading this might say or think, this is on the other side of the world; it's not going to matter to us, let us just play on our PS5's. That is what we should all want to do as well, because we want it all to be fake. We want these kids to have their lives back; we need Vladimir Putin to realize what he has done wrong and pay the price. For this to happen, we have to send letters, donate food, clothes, or just monetary donations!! It all counts, even just a dollar! Just think if we were in the place of Ukraine, I am sure we would be grateful for the support.
Many people are claiming that this invasion will start World War 3. What is your opinion? Take the poll here:
President Biden of the United States is doing as much as he can to support Ukraine. The New York Times stated, "President Biden plans to announce $800 million in new security assistance to Ukraine on Wednesday, according to White House officials. As of March 16th 2022, there have been about 3 million Ukrainians who have left the country since the invasion. The U. N (United Nations) are saying the war is creating a child refugee every second. In my opinion, WE as a school should support the innocent children being affected by the war.
President Zelenskyy met with members of the US Congress and expressed how Ukraine needs more support to help deal with Russia's invasion. This shows how much Ukraine really needs our country for support.
As a school, we can help Ukraine. Even with small donations, children and adults of Ukraine will be VERY thankful. I’m sure as an adoloescent who just went through a pandemic, we can kind of relate to how much support the Ukrainian young adults seek. So if you can sympathize for a moment, I’m sure if you had a few dollars to spend on Peter’s Hot Bagels, maybe you can save it, find out what displaced Ukrainans need and donate to those causes. Save your bagels for the morning breakfast (ok, let’s not get too carried away).