Along with the rest of the world, the Venice High community has shown concern about the way that war between both countries has escalated. 

Late last month, Russia invaded Ukraine. While Russian leader Vladimir Putin stayed at home to negotiate the war, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy left his home and went to fight alongside his troops on the battlefield. 

Prior to 1991, Ukraine was a part of the Soviet Union before gaining independence. However, now they are in a war against Russia.

“Russia has launched a war of aggression and has invaded Ukraine, a neighboring country,” says government teacher Asahn Minhas, who has been explaining to students. “There are many possible reasons why Russia has done this, but it is ultimately an illegal war and must be condemned in the strongest possible terms.”

However, it is not only adults who see the impact of the war. Students at Venice High are day-by-day becoming more aware of what’s going on around them.

“While I’m glad that Biden offered to help relocate President Zelenskyy, I find it heroic that he bravely declined and asked for ammunition instead,” says freshman Samantha Hartmann.

However, it seems as though many Russians have decided that they do not want to go to war. They can be seen in many videos participating in anti-war protests and actively trying to keep Vladimir Putin from inciting a war, which unfortunately did not work out.  

“It was a selfish choice for Putin to declare war, meaning he could have decided against war and entirely avoided the situation,” Hartmann says.

At this point, Ukraine has put up far more of a fight than what Russia and Putin anticipated, and the outcome is yet to be seen. 

“The only justifiable excuse for war is self-defense,” Minhas says. “The Russian invasion of Ukraine is a war of aggression, the supreme international crime in the eyes of the prosecutors at Nuremberg, and the perpetrators should be dealt with accordingly.”