Topic:

War in Ukraine

materials

The Russian armed forces’ invasion of Ukraine has resulted in tremendous loss of life and displacement of people to neighbouring nations. Many world leaders have condemned Putin’s actions, imposed sanctions on Russia, frozen the assets of Russian businesses and citizens, and a number of European nations have opened their doors to refugees from Ukraine. These responses have raised questions about the consistency with which we treat national conflicts, treat people and assets as political tools, and aid displaced peoples.

Below are a range of materials that explore our responses to the war in Ukraine.

Facilitation Notes

Discussion Questions
  • How does the language news organisations use to describe the invasion (e.g. Putin’s invasion, Russia’s invasion, the Russian military invasion etc) affect attitudes towards Russia and Russians outside Russia?
  • Is it helpful to compare Russia’s treatment of Ukraine to other geopolitical conflicts (e.g. Israel’s treatment of Palestine, the US and UK invasion of Iraq).
  • What responsibility to universities outside Russia and Ukraine have to the citizens of those nations?
  • Many nations condemning Russia have not yet taken responsibility for their own historic actions of aggression and the spreading of misinformation about this aggression. Is this a double-standard?
Resource Personalisation
  • Tha materials for this discussion topic were chosen on 11th March, 2022. You may want to update them with more current materials reflecting issues that have arisen since then.

Culture Club.