Ukraine needs humanitarian safe area to protect civilians fleeing war
With the invasion of Ukraine, Russia has violated the founding principles of the Charter of the United Nations and has created a humanitarian disaster.
A humanitarian safe area needs to be established in western Ukraine.
The United States should form a coalition of forces to protect civilians fleeing the war. The coalition should make it clear that any attack on these civilians or the forces protecting them will not be tolerated.
Such a humanitarian safe area would be a non-aggressive act and would force Putin to be the one to escalate the conflict, should he opt to attack those in the safe area.
Over 1.5 million people have fled the bombs, missiles and rockets of invading Russian forces. The tragedy confronting Ukraine is a tragedy that also confronts the entire world. It is now time to step beyond sanctions.
BOB KENNEDY, SANDY SPRINGS
Columnist Pitts makes Blacks victims out of every situation
Every week Leonard Pitts Jr. writes the same article for the AJC with the same message of “blaming someone or something” for making Blacks victims of white supremacy. This week (AJC, March 6), he likens the treatment of “dark-skinned Africans and Indians” put behind Ukrainians at border crossings as equivalent to the genocide being carried out by the Russians over the Ukrainians. Pitts never stops. He makes Black victims out of every situation, which only hurts and diminishes the Black causes of today. Mr. Pitts, how many Black Americans were killed today by white supremacists, not Blacks killing Blacks, just supremacists, versus how many Ukrainians were killed by Russians today? Your premise might have made some sense in the U.S. up to 159 years ago, but it has been significantly reduced since then. The last time I studied Black and white relations in the U.S., I found an eagerness to give Blacks every advantage possible to “get ahead.” There is no genocide being fostered on American Blacks today.
RUSSELL ARMER, WOODSTOCK
