The West and Russia must “do everything possible” to avoid a war in Ukraine because of the human, economic and climate cost it would bring, former Democrat presidential contender Bernie Sanders warned in an article published by the Guardian on Tuesday.
Sanders is an independent US senator from Vermont who came in second in the Democrats’ presidential nomination races in 2016 and 2020. He currently chairs the Senate Budget Committee.
Outlining the potential costs of the war in Ukraine, Sanders cited estimates of over 50,000 civilian casualties, millions of refugees potentially flooding into Europe, and the prospect of the war expanding to the entire continent.
Sanctions and counter-sanctions imposed in response to the war “could result in massive economic upheaval – with impacts on energy, banking, food and the day-to-day needs of ordinary people throughout the entire world” and not just Russians, Sanders cautioned. They would also deal a “major setback” to hopes of international cooperation on “the existential threat of global climate crisis and future pandemics.”
Wars “have unintended consequences. They rarely turn out the way the experts tell us they will,” Sanders noted, pointing to the recent US experience in Afghanistan.
While Sanders insisted the US “must unequivocally support the sovereignty of Ukraine,” he was “extremely concerned” with the rhetoric in Washington about showing strength and avoiding “appeasement,” which he said gets amplified before every war.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has voiced support for the Russian president's pick for a new…
President Vladimir Putin has proposed that Sergei Shoigu be replaced as Minister of Defense of…
The entire Ukrainian society would need to make sacrifices and forget about their peaceful lives…
Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin on Saturday unveiled his first picks for the new cabinet,…
One person was killed and at least four others wounded in a Ukrainian rocket strike…
We have been through an intense, if muffled crisis in the ongoing political-military confrontation between…