The war in Ukraine started on February 24, 2022 mainly due to Russia wanting their land because they don’t want NATO countries touching their border and Ukraine is becoming a NATO country. It is estimated that  150,000 people have died and roughly 13 million Ukrainian civilians were forced to flee their homes. The war has affected the residents of Ukraine greatly including people leaving the country to go to neighboring countries like Poland. Also the people in Ukraine have had shortages of food and water, and they couldn’t get healthcare for a while. 

     All of the NATO countries are supporting Ukraine in the war. NATO consists of  more than 40 countries including the U.S., Britain, Turkey, and many more. The United States has committed more than $7.3 billion in assistance to Ukraine. They spent the money on additional arms, ammunition and other equipment. 

     War crimes are a big issue within this conflict. A war crime is an action carried out during war that violates accepted international rules of war. According to a Ukrainian Prosecutor’s office, there are 39,347 alleged Russian war crimes. They will pay financially and countries will stop trading with Russia because of the war crimes they committed. There were numerous war crimes recorded including murder, torture, abductions, deportation, looting and many more. 

     The Russian and Ukrainian war has affected other countries in many ways as well. One of the ways is that it caused gas prices to go up and it caused lots of inflation. It also caused lots of problems with global markets and food supplies. So we should all pray for the Ukrainians and hope to see them get out of this war.