I admire Pope Paul VI who said in 1965: “No more war, war never again”. Wars do not solve any problem. They only breed resentment and deepen enmity. Fifty-one countries of the world created the United Nations in 1945 with lofty objectives: that all countries may co-exist peacefully, prosper, and improve the lives of their people. The verdict is that the United Nations is a failure. Under its watch, there have been several wars in the last 80 years.
Two wars are currently raging in this world Russia-Ukraine
The Ukraine war was started on February 24, 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine. In the heydays of the USSR, Ukraine was a republic of the Soviet Union. Many Russians and Russian-speaking people lived in the region known as Ukraine. When the Soviet Union dissolved itself in 1991, Ukraine became a sovereign Republic. Between 2014 and 2022, Russia forcibly annexed Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk. The annexations seem to be a fait accompli. Russia’s justification for the invasion of Ukraine was that Ukraine had applied to become a member of NATO and NATO countries were using Ukraine to expand their sphere of influence and encircle Russia.
Ukraine is a sovereign country. Whether or not it will become a member of NATO, it has a right to exist and the world must guarantee its independence and security.
The war threatens the existence of Ukraine. As of September 10, 2025, the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine has documented at least 14,116 civilians killed and 36,481 injured. Ukraine is a ravaged land: hospitals, schools, housing, industries, etc. have been razed to the ground. Millions of citizens have fled the country (5.6 mn) or are displaced in their own country (3.7 mn). On both sides, the total casualties among soldiers is over a million including North Korean soldiers.
Despite billions of dollars of arms and military equipment supplied by the Western countries – which do not want direct involvement – it seems that Ukraine is fighting a losing war. The unpredictable President Trump can force President Putin to stop the war, but he is unwilling to do so. Ukraine is on the right side of morality and legality in this war, but is helpless because of a vacillating United States and an impotent United Nations. History will record the Ukraine war as one of the most futile, immoral and unequal wars fought between two nations.
The other war was started by Hamas, a militant group that rules Gaza, a part of Palestine. The region has witnessed many wars. Despite the history, the attack by Hamas on Israel on October 7, 2023 was entirely unprovoked and condemnable. The attack left 1,200 Israelis (mostly civilians) dead. Hamas also took 251 Israelis as hostages; some are still in Hamas’ custody. Israel is a hard state. It has mounted a relentless multi-vector attack on Gaza with the objective of evicting all the people and annexing the whole of Palestine. It already controls most of West Bank, the other part of Palestine.
Israel is implacably opposed to the two-state theory. At least 67,000 persons have been killed in Gaza, mostly women and children, and the infrastructure has been almost completely destroyed. People are dying without food, water and medicines. Israel was justified to retaliate for the Hamas’ attack but its retaliation is totally disproportionate and prolonged, and its objective illegal and unacceptable. Palestinians have the right to a homeland.
As I write, it is not known if Hamas will accept President Trump’s 20-point ‘peace plan’ that seems to substantially endorse Israel’s demands. Hamas may have no choice if it must bring immediate respite to the devastated Palestinians. Acceptance of the ‘peace plan’ will mean surrendering Palestine’s future to external control with no clarity on whether Palestine, recognised by 157 countries, will ever be a sovereign state. One must make a distinction between Hamas and the Palestine people. It will be a humiliating denouement for Hamas’ misadventure; it will also be continued suppression of Palestinians’ rights.
India has, by and large, taken a principled position in the Ukraine war. Prime Minister Modi has tried to play peacemaker but he does not have the clout to bring to bear the moral authority and persuasion that India enjoyed in the 1950s and 1960s. In the Israel-Hamas war, India had badly stumbled. The government betrayed India’s long-standing position that both Israel and Palestine have a right to exist under the ‘two state’ plan. However, lately, the government seems to have realised its folly and retraced its steps.
The purpose of this essay is not only to draw attention to the devastating wars that are being fought by apparently ‘strong’ countries against weak opponents. It is also to highlight the utter futility of war. There are war-mongers in every country and they believe that war is a solution to many disputes. This war-mongering philosophy also spills over into resolution of internal differences. In the domestic sphere, ‘war’ is substituted by ‘violence’ and the obnoxious rule of ‘might is right’.
The world needs leaders with the moral authority of Jawaharlal Nehru, Dag Hammarskjold, Martin Luther King Jr and Nelson Mandela. The world needs nations that can come together and exert influence over the quarreling countries and restrain the superpowers. The world needs new institutions unlike the present United Nations. For the present, there is only darkness and no dawn in sight.
