Unprovoked and seemingly unabashed, Russian President Vladimir Putin has waged a brazen war against Ukraine in recent weeks.

Against all odds, outgunned and outnumbered, the Ukrainian military has beautifully resisted the invading forces. The Russian army, unable to progress more than several tens of miles into the neighboring country, has shown that it can do little more than wave around its nuclear wand.

As it gets stalled, the Russian military has tried to lower morale and make up for lost ground by indiscriminately bombing civilian infrastructure. From children’s hospitals and maternity wards to humanitarian evacuation routes, they leave children and mothers bleeding in the street for their families and friends to see.

It would suffice to say that this wouldn’t be possible without Putin’s almighty propaganda machine. At home, suddenly cut off from the world, Putin has half of his populace convinced that there is no war, and the other half scared to say anything. While opening fire on protesters in Russian-held Ukrainian territories, Putin has thrown his own people in jail for participating in demonstrations on Russian soil. They are then subjected to beatings, torture, rape and even sent to fight in Ukraine.

This is not new. While the government’s crackdowns on perceived dissent smells like Soviet-era governance, so do Putin’s territorial ambitions.

The formal explanation set forth by the Russian government is that Ukraine poses a threat to Russia’s security through their interest in joining NATO and the EU. God forbid a country does something in its economic interests!

Ukraine, like many post-Soviet countries, has long strived toward westernization, yearning to break free from its Soviet past. Some others, such as the Baltics, have become full-fledged members of both the EU and NATO with flourishing industries and are as much at Russia’s doorstep as Ukraine will ever be.

Russia, on the other hand, has done its best to maintain its sphere of influence over its post-Soviet neighbors. There is no better example than Belarus, which has done everything short of becoming a Russian territory. After declaring he had won 80 percent of the vote in 2020, Belarussian dictator Lukashenko cracked down on demonstrators, and even called on the help of Russian forces. Now, the Russian military is launching attacks on Ukraine from Belarussian bases.

The West, in response, has responded with a flurry of sanctions. While the Ruble has subsequently collapsed, a gloomy indicator of what’s to come for Russia’s economy, the result may not be what the West has been expecting. From Soviet times, we know more sanctions will further isolate Russia from the West and will feed into Putin’s propaganda machine.

In essence, his people’s newfound suffering will make for a convenient scapegoat of the West and further reason to continue his assault on Ukraine. It has now become clear that the sanctions will not deter Putin from continuing his brazen attack, but will only push Russia away from the Western economic and political spheres, and potentially closer to other adversaries, such as China.

In the meantime, Russia, low on resources and morale, will continue to resort to increasingly destructive means of assault as it struggles to make progress on the ground. Most recently, after Russia withdrew from the village of Bucha, near Kiev, it was found that hundreds of men aged 18-60 were executed with one shot to the head, while girls, as young as 10, were raped and murdered.

This so-far failed operation has shown that the Russian military has little more to show apart from its aging Soviet-era nuclear warheads and absence of any conscience. Ukraine, on the other hand, has put up a worthy show, largely using Soviet-made weapons, machinery and aircrafts from the 70’s and 80’s.

While Western support helps, it has not come close to giving Ukraine what it needs to effectively fight back. The United States, along with other NATO countries, have largely provided Ukraine with defensive weapons, such as anti-tank and anti-aircraft rockets and missiles. While this is invaluable, it comes somewhat short of what Ukraine has openly requested from Western nations and what they need to put up an effective offense.

NATO, arguably, is fighting a proxy war in Ukraine, which has as much to do with fighting the Russian sphere of influence as it does with protecting its own. The occupation of Ukraine would mean an increasingly looming Russian threat in Europe, which would create a headache far beyond Ukrainian borders. With Ukraine-bordering Moldova not being a NATO member either, there is virtually nothing stopping Putin from stopping at the Moldovan border.

As individuals an ocean away and far-detached from the realities of war, we can’t fundraise to provide Ukraine with fighter jets, but we can certainly raise funds for the now more than four million Ukrainian refugees. These are people who lived with everything and now have nothing. These are kids who were sent off to distant countries while their parents went to war. These people had everything ripped away from them in a matter of days.

Please consider donating to cashforrefugees.org. This organization is currently on the Ukrainian-Polish border, handing out funds and materials to refugees coming across.