BlessWorld Foundation International

Affecting the World Through Health
A Global Health Initiative

Long term impacts of the Russo-Ukrainian war on Public Health and Social Change

29.03.2022

Blog

Conflict and war are ingrained in human history. Historically, groups have always fought against groups, cities against cities, and nations against nations. Most independent countries have had their fair share of war. In the first and second world wars, Canada was a crucial part of the western alliance, and was involved in the long Military Intervention against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. Conflict and war arise for various reasons including money, power, territorial control, ideologies, and a combination of these reasons. Similar to several social factors, armed conflict is a pervasive man-made public health problem.

Regarding the current Russia-Ukraine war, it is important to give a brief background and back story. In February 2014, Russia’s annexation Crimea was followed by war in Donbas and subsequently, the declaration of Independence of separatist states (Luhansk, Donetsk). The fear of Russia losing control of countries formerly part of the Soviet Union, to the western alliance, combined with Ukraine’s desire for autonomy from Russia, made Russia place a ban on Ukraine from joining NATO. This deteriorated into a full blown war on 24th February, 2022 in an attempt to demilitarize Ukraine.

Modern warfare differs significantly from those of the past. A combination of multiple treaties, alliances and highly destructive nuclear weapons create horrific possibilities of another world war, and in extreme cases, an end to current civilization. Due to much more advanced weapons in modern warfare, damages can be terrible and unfathomable. The statistics for the Russo-Ukrainian war- in just a month are already alarming. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has confirmed over a thousand deaths, and much more injured. It is challenging to precisely quantify the impact of this war, or any other war for that matter, because the long term destructive effects go way beyond bullets and bombs. The current war is especially worse considering that the world is still recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic.

An already existing public health challenge from this conflict was the removal of opioid substitution therapy on May 2014, after Russia annexed Crimea. This resulted in increased breakout of infections related to intravenous drug use. These infections, often called syndemics- as a result of common association with each other, include HIV and Tuberculosis. Concerns around the potential of biological warfare has led the World Health Organization (WHO) to advise Ukraine to destroy high-threat pathogens housed in the country’s public health laboratories. This would prevent any potential spills that may spread disease among the population. Anxiety, PTSD and other mental health problems are also expected to increase due to this war. If not for anything, the thought of escalation to nuclear warfare is enough to cause mental health anguish- just like the the nuclear attack on Hiroshima/Nagasaki which lasted for decades after the Second World War.
Armed conflict like this leads to increased incidence of traumatic injuries- not just among soldiers but also among civilians; men, women and children. News reports in the past weeks have captured gruesome scenes of the destruction of essential health facilities such as Mariupol Maternity hospital, and a psychiatric hospital in Izyuum. In a desperate effort to force the Ukrainian leaders to submission, these destructions by the Russian military have resulted in massive civilian casualties. Russia has inflicted significant damage on Ukraine since the war is fought on Ukrainian soil. Overwhelmed by the pressure from the Russian military, Ukrainian citizens continue to feel unsafe and anxious, this has led to increase in the number of refugees in neighbouring countries. The number of refugees are now as high as 3.16 million- mostly moving to Poland, creating a major public health crisis.

Citizens of other countries like Ghana, India, Zimbabwe,Nigeria have been trapped In Ukraine due to difficulties leaving the country.
Since the onset of the war, Russia has received multiple sanctions from western allied countries, international organizations like EU, council of Europe ,UN and many others. This has caused significant economic consequences for the country, in addition to the usual economic decline that come from war.
Notable economic outcomes of war include:
• Ban on Russia oil, gas and coal on March 8 by the US president
• Freezing of foreign exchange reserves worth over $1 trillion
• Suspension of Visa and MasterCard in Russia
• Inflation rates of about 9.15 percent
• Sanctioning of important Russian oligarchs

Other countries have also seen economic decline due to the nature of global economics today. Interest rates in US are now as high as 25%. In Canada,Inflation rates have risen to a 30 year high of around 6% leading to sharp increase in the prices of oil and other commodities.
Ukraine has attracted massive support from international organizations, national governments all over the world and NGOs. Canada, amongst other nations, continue to provide financial and humanitarian support, armed support and standby UNIFIER troops.
Whether the Russo-Ukrainian conflict is resolved by the ongoing war is left for the future to decide. What is known, however, is that the public health effects and resulting social change will be felt for many years to come.

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