THE Good (Datuk Zainul Arifin Mohamed Isa), The Bad (Datuk Ahirudin Attan) and The Ugly (this time Terence Fernandez is represented by journalist A. Azim Idris), returns after a short New Year hiatus with special guest Denys Mykhailiuk, counsellor and charge d'affaires ad interim at the Embassy of Ukraine in Malaysia.
Next month will mark a full year since the invasion of Ukraine by Russia. Despite the tragic headlines and widespread impact of the war on the world, the conflict appears to have little traction among Malaysians who are mostly nonchalant about the news coming out of Ukraine.
Is it due to frontline news fatigue? Are we more inclined to empathise with the plight of brown refugees compared to the thousands of displaced Ukrainians who seem to be more readily embraced in the west?
Is the Malaysian public more pro-Russia and anti-Ukraine? What are the sentiments of the Malaysian public on this conflict and why the seeming lack of condemnation of the aggressor?
MH17 an early casualty
It can be said that Malaysia, along with The Netherlands, was one of the first international casualties of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, when a Malaysia Airlines aeroplane was shot down, killing all 298 people on board on July 17, 2014. The incident is the deadliest airliner shoot-down incident to date.
On November 17, 2022, following a trial in absentia in the Netherlands, two Russians and a Ukrainian separatist were found guilty by the District Court of The Hague of murdering all 298 passengers onboard flight MH17 by shooting it down.
The Dutch court also ruled that Russia was in control of the separatist forces fighting in eastern Ukraine at the time. Mykhailiuk elaborates on Ukraine’s role in granting every effort to bring the criminals to justice.
Geopolitics and the threat of nuclear war
How much longer will this war continue? What are China’s thoughts on the conflict? How will the impending change in weather impact the progress of the war? What is the actual risk of a nuclear attack on Ukraine?
Eleven months on from the start of the Russian invasion last February, some foreign missions and embassies have returned to Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital. Is this an indication that security is relatively tighter and infrastructure operational, despite continued attacks by Russian forces on power grids and supply lines linked to the city?
Mikhailiuk paints a picture for us on what day-to-day life currently looks like around Kyiv, and for the three million people who continue to live and work there, while sharing his hopes for bilateral relations between the Ukraine and Malaysia. – The Vibes, January 21, 2023
Presented by Petra News chief executive Datuk Zainul Arifin Mohamed Isa, executive director Datuk Ahirudin Attan (better known as Rocky Bru) and editor-in-chief Terence Fernandez
Produced by Shazmin Shamsuddin and sound edited by Ethan Phoon
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