Has war fatigue pushed the Russia-Ukraine conflict on the backburner?

The building was partially destroyed by the strike, AFP correspondents saw at the scene, where dozens of rescuers were sifting through the rubble with a mechanical digger on July 10. "During the rescue operation, 15 bodies were found at the scene and five people were pulled out of the rubble" alive in the town of Chasiv Yar, the local emergency service said on Facebook on July 10. (Image: AFP)

War engenders anxiety, nervousness, urgency, and even romanticism. However, these issues become tangential and ephemeral if the war is a long drawn one, and does not directly involve many countries. The churning of events in the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war is a living testimony to this fact.

While Ukraine is staring at complete destruction of its economy and infrastructure, and even total defeat at some stage, the protracted war is increasingly becoming a peripheral issue for most nations that were, at one stage, quite worked up about the Russian invasion.

Evidences from print and visual media testify to this reality bite. War-related coverage is being relegated to inside pages in many mainstream national newspapers. Ditto for television news channels who are now focusing on the political developments within India, and thereby relegating the Russia-Ukraine war to the ‘world news’ section. The coverage trend is not unique to India, but is reflected across the world, including even those countries hitherto diplomatically inclined towards Ukraine. For instance, only one of four weekly editions of The Economist in June gave front page coverage to the war.

While the war remains intense and catastrophic, it is being fought only between two countries, losing men and material on daily basis, apart from destruction to their economies. The war is theirs, the burden is theirs, and so is the pain. The only other countries involved in the war are those who have a competitive military industrial complex; their interest in the war has a commercial angle to it. The other nations are watching the side lines, and their interest is increasingly reducing.

On the face of it, there are many explanations for fading interests in the ongoing war. First, this war has been a ‘long war’ with no signs of an end. Contemporary warfare places high emphasis on short and swift conflicts with limited objectives. Therefore, it is only logical that life moves on for other nations with limited investment of emotions, memory, involvement, etc.

Second, non-war compulsions (primarily domestic), have led the nations to make gradual shift from a war-based agenda to other issues. The initial hype notwithstanding, the war has failed to galvanise nations based on an ‘us vs them’ binary. Third, a quick turn of events makes war prognosis a risky exercise. For instance, Russia was expected to win the war easily. Russia is, indeed, toiling hard even for incremental gains. Then, the politics of sanctions was supposed to tame Russia. That does not seem to have the desired impact on Moscow’s behaviour.

The West was supposed to be fully behind Ukraine. However, after pushing Ukraine into the actual conflict, the West is not committing entirely to Kyiv’s rescue, either through full logistics supplies or through a negotiated settlement with Russia.

But, most importantly, the ongoing war has been pushed on the backburner by society because we’ve changed into an increasingly morally sceptic society. To some extent, as a society, we’ve become numb to thousands of soldiers dying, millions being displaced, and city after city being destroyed. When the war gets over at some stage, strategic experts will study and find reasons for why this has happened, and so on; but that’s for later.

Relegating the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war to margins is indicative of the fatalism creeping in our psyche. Our insensitivity and indifference now may lead to similar conflicts in other parts of the world. That’s why it is important that the Ukraine’s plight is highlighted on a constant basis, and talks are encouraged so that the war comes to an end.

Views are personal, and do not represent the stand of this publication.