COLUMBUS, Ohio — “This is kind of scary to contemplate in [the] 21st century the possibility of something like this coming back to humanity,” Marianna Klochko said.
Klochko is a Ukrainian-American and is the president of the Ukrainian Cultural Association of Central Ohio. She says Russia’s pending invasion of Ukraine is frightening for Ukrainians, Americans and Ohioans.
“When we’re talking about third world war if it is going to be nuclear weapons, this is not going to be fun for anyone,” she said. “There will be nowhere to hide, really.”
She refers to Russia as the “Evil Empire” that has been at war with Ukraine for the last eight years resulting in thousands of Ukrainian deaths.
Monday, the United States reported seeing Russia continue to make moves in the field consistent with military preparations to invade Ukraine. National Security advisors have said a Russian attack could be as soon as hours away and would be extremely violent.
Klochko said Putin views this kind of force as collateral damage and that human rights values have not been seen as a necessity to those who govern Russian society.
Klochko says first and foremost, Americans should care about this situation because there’s a human perspective. She says people will probably suffer and be killed and there will be many refugees fleeing their homeland.
Here in Ohio, she says there could be an economic impact from electronic chip shortages to your wallet, impacting the global stock market, savings accounts, 401K and stocks.
More than that, she says there’s a military impact.
She worries if Russia invades Ukraine other countries flexing military muscle might not be far behind.
“As far as international law is concerned, if we let Russia continue doing what it’s doing then it sets a dangerous precedent on [the] international stage,” she said. “Then, a variety of other rogue states potentially China, North Korea, Iran will also decide to use their military might to take over additional territories seeing that no one in the world does anything about it.”