Ukraine-USSR War: The modern version of David and Goliath
The war between Ukraine and Russia is now on its second month and we are witnessing a superpower trying to erase its weaker opponent from the face of the earth!
As I See It, this is the modern version of the old-known “David and Goliath” biblical story of a weaker opponent (David) against a stronger opponent (Goliath)!
Goliath is described in the biblical Book of Samuel as a Philistine giant defeated by David in a single combat.
The story signified Saul’s unfitness to rule, as Saul himself should have fought for Israel.
The Ukraine-Russia war is a modern version! David is likened to Ukraine and Goliath to Russia and while David defeated Goliath in a single combat, the Ukraine-Russia war is a continuing battle where the winner may have to be determined in due time after a series of exchanges in the battleground that only time will tell when it will be ended.
Ukraine president Vlodomir Zelensky can be referred to as the new version of Saul, who refused to be on exile but stayed and fought with them side by side determined to die for his country, unlike Saul who didn’t fight for his people.
It was David who accepted the giant’s call and fought for his people!
The phrase “David and Goliath” has taken a more popular meaning denoting an underdog situation, a contest wherein a smaller, weaker opponent faces a much bigger, stronger adversary (Wikipedia).
This is the modern version where the weaker protagonist (Ukraine) is joined by people of the world (the world community led by US and NATO) after the first combat (Russia firing the first salvo) was waged.
Military, humanitarian, and other forms of support from almost all nations of the world (the world community) are overwhelming! G7 is there, NATO is there and the European community is there to back up Ukraine!
As of today, when U.S. President Joe Biden stopped in Poland on Friday to meet with U.S.
troops, President Andrzej Duda and Ukrainian refugees, in a bid to signal Western unity against Russia’s onslaught, and Biden told them US troops in Poland are fighting for democracy.
(CNBC News, Robert Frank and Sam Meredith)
Biden’s statement came as the U.K.’s Defense Ministry said Ukraine was pushing Russian troops back and regaining ground near Kyiv.
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky marked one month since Russia launched its full-scale attack by thanking his country’s armed forces, suggesting Moscow may not have launched its invasion if it knew the extent of Ukraine’s resistance.
Putin underestimated Ukraine!
President Biden stopped near Rzeszow, Poland to thank the U.S. Army 82nd Airborne Division ahead of his meeting with the country’s President Andrzej Duda in Warsaw.
“We’re in the midst of a fight between democracy and oligarchs. What’s at stake here is not just what we’re doing in Ukraine to try to help the Ukrainian people and try to keep the massacre from continuing.
Beyond that is what are your kids and grandkids going to look like in terms of their freedom,” Biden said.
He further stated: “What you’re engaging in is much bigger than whether or not you can alleviate the pain and suffering of the people of Ukraine.
We’re in a new phase, we’re at an inflection point… the world will not be the same in 10 or 15 years and the question is:
“Who’s going to prevail,” democracy or autocracy?” (Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters)
Biden, in addressing the troops, invoked his son Beau Biden, a lawyer and officer in the Army Judge Advocate General’s Corps who served in Iraq and Kosovo.
“There are hundreds of thousands of people like my son, like all of you. So, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. You are the finest fighting force in the history of the world,” Biden said.
China has thus far refused to denounce Russia’s assault on Ukraine, and U.S. officials say that Russia has asked Beijing for help as it struggles to seize control of its neighbor.
The U.S. and its NATO allies have for weeks warned Beijing that efforts to outfit Moscow with arms or provide economic relief in violation of Western sanctions would result in unspecified consequences.
President Biden will travel to Warsaw, Poland, on Saturday to meet with Ukrainian refugees and Americans providing humanitarian aid before delivering a “major address,” the White House said. (Kacper Pempel | Reuters)
Biden’s speech “will speak to the stakes of this moment, the urgency of the challenge that lies ahead, what the conflict in Ukraine means for the world, and why it is so important that the free world sustain unity and resolve in the face of Russian aggression,” national security advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters on Air Force One.
Meanwhile, Russian stocks, as a result of the economic sanctions being imposed by the West, closed lower on their second day of trade, with flag carrier Aeroflot and state-owned energy giant Gazprom leading the losses.
The Moscow Exchange closed down 3.7% in another shortened session. (Sam Meredith)
The U.N. refugee agency reported that over 3.7 million people have fled Ukraine since Russia launched its unprovoked assault on Feb. 24, the vast majority of whom are women and children because their husbands and other male adults were left fighting for their country.
Of these, over 2.2 million fled to neighboring Poland; around 570,000 have sought safety in Romania; and roughly 370,000 went to Moldova.
Citing eyewitness accounts, Mariupol city council has said that about 300 people are thought to have been killed in the bombing of the besieged city’s theater earlier this month.
More than 1,000 people were estimated to have been sheltering in the Mariupol theater when the attack was waged on March 16.
“The Drama Theater in the heart of Mariupol has always been the hallmark of the city. Now there is no more Drama Theater.
In its place, a new point of pain for Mariupol residents appeared, ruins that became the last refuge for hundreds of innocent people,” Mariupol’s city council said via Telegram.
Reports said that “Biden is expected to meet with U.S. troops stationed in Poland who have recently been deployed to provide further assistance to NATO’s eastern flank.
He is also scheduled to meet aid workers assisting refugees in the country.
President Biden and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced a joint task force to reduce the bloc’s dependence on Russian fossil fuels as the Kremlin’s war with Ukraine continues.
The U.S. has said it will work with international partners to provide at least 15 billion cubic meters more of liquified natural gas to Europe this year.
According to the U.K.’s Defense Ministry, Ukraine has re-occupied control of towns and defensive positions up to 35 kilometers east of the capital Kyiv, with Russian troops seen falling back on “overextended supply lines.”
Ukrainian forces are likely to continue to attempt to push Russian forces back along the northwestern axis from Kyiv toward Hostomel Airfield.
If Beijing told Moscow that they want the war to end, Russia would have “no choice but to try and end this war relatively soon,” O’Brien told CNBC’s “Street Signs Asia” on Friday. “China has that much influence,” he said.
However, China doesn’t want to look like it is abandoning one of its important partners, and is playing a very “intricate and delicate game.”
“There’s a strategic interest not to abandon Russia and not have Russia be too humiliated. But there’s an enormous economic interest to have good relations with the West,” he said.
President Biden has insisted NATO “would respond” if Russian President Putin uses chemical weapons in Ukraine, without providing further details of what this might mean.
“We would respond if he uses it,” Biden said at a press conference, referring to Putin. “The nature of the response would depend on the nature of the use.”
His comments came after a flurry of meeting summits with the European Union, G-7 partners and NATO allies.
Will David triumph in modern times?
(ELPIDIO R. ESTIOKO was a veteran journalist in the Philippines and a multi-awarded journalist here in the US.
For feedbacks, comments… please email the author at estiok[email protected])
