Russia's war with Ukraine also demonstrated the
inefficiency of the institutional security system in
Europe and the world in general. In her speech at
the time of receiving the Nobel Peace Prize,
Oleksandra Matviychuk noted that the UN
system, created after the World War II by its
winners, provides for some unjustified
indulgences for individual countries. If we don’t
want to live in the world where rules are set by
states with stronger military capabilities, this has
to be changed. We have to start reforming the
international system to protect people from wars
and authoritarian regimes. We need effective
guarantees of security and respect for human
rights for citizens of all states regardless of their
participation in military alliances, military
capability or economic power. This new system
should have human rights at its core.
(Matviychuk, 2022).
Understanding the instability of the world order,
authoritarian regimes in various parts of the
planet have stepped up to achieve their domestic
and foreign policy goals. Literally before our
eyes, a military alliance of the authoritarian
regimes of Iran and Russia was formed. The first
of them dreams of the physical destruction of
Israel, spreading its influence over the entire
region and causing maximum damage to its
ideological enemy - the United States. At the
same time, any manifestations of democratic
freedoms are being suppressed within the
country, and the ruling regime is increasingly
using the repressive apparatus against its citizens
every day. After the start of Russia's terrorist war
against Ukraine, Iran began mass deliveries of its
drones to Russia, officially denying this fact. In
addition, according to the intelligence of a
number of countries, Iran is going to transfer
missiles of various ranges to Russia for use in
Ukraine. In other words, the authoritarian regime
of the Ayatollahs of Iran decided to strengthen its
position by entering into an alliance with Russia.
As for Russia itself, it dreams of the physical
destruction of Ukraine, to spread its influence
over the countries of the former socialist camp
and to cause maximum damage to the most
powerful country in the world so far - the USA.
It is not even accepted to talk about democratic
freedoms inside Russia, because they have been
successively destroyed during the last twenty
years. Anyone who disagrees with the regime, or
anyone in general, can be imprisoned for a long
time on a fabricated sentence or simply killed. At
the same time, a distinctive feature of the Russian
regime is the use of lying and sometimes absurd
propaganda on an unprecedented scale. Crazy
informational influence is exerted both on the
outside and on the residents of Russia
themselves, who are ready to fight with the whole
world and die en masse, without even
understanding why. Authoritarian tendencies are
also strengthening in China, however, this
country is currently refraining not only from
occupying rebellious Taiwan, but even from
openly supporting Russia's actions in Ukraine, as
it is wary of US sanctions, on the cooperation of
which it is completely dependent. Surprisingly,
autocratic populist forces are gaining popularity
even within the European Union. In particular,
Hungary, being a member of the EU, has been
trying to implement a nationalist and sometimes
anti-Western policy for a long time. It is logical
that in Russia's war against Ukraine, Hungary de
facto supports the aggressor and tries to play the
role of a kind of Trojan horse within the
European community. A similar role, but within
NATO, is played by Turkey, which in recent
years has increasingly resembled an Eastern
autocracy rather than a Western-style
democracy. In particular, blocking the entry of
Sweden and Finland into NATO due to the desire
to bargain for more preferences in the West is
outright blackmail and a dangerous geopolitical
game. So, being at a point of complete
uncertainty, we are witnessing an active phase of
the struggle between authoritarian and
democratic regimes, on which the future of our
world depends. If Western democracies dare to
defend their values with all the means available
to them, humanity has a chance for a dignified
existence, and if not, our world can turn into an
arena of constant wars.
Another problem related to the war in Ukraine
concerns local and global ecology. In the summer
of 2022, the whole world experienced abnormal
weather phenomena. Europe faced the worst
drought in the last 500 years. High temperatures
were also recorded in other countries. All these
problems are caused by climate change, the cause
of which is human activity. And the worst thing
that people can do in this difficult time is to start
an invasion of a neighboring country, thereby
increasing greenhouse gas emissions many times
over, creating hype around carbon fuels, and
calling into question the goal of achieving
climate neutrality. This is exactly what Russia
did in February 2022 and continues to destroy
with its actions everything that has been done by
the world community to adapt to climate change
in recent years. For example, in 2021, about 2
tons of toxic substances were released into the
atmosphere in Ukraine. During the six months of
the war in Ukraine in 2022, emissions into the
atmosphere amounted to 46 million tons
(Melnyk, 2022).