War in Ukraine: the plight of students left to fend for themselves

In Ukraine, foreign students live the war to the rhythm of Ukrainians. Many of them have no news from their embassies. Isolated, with no evacuation plan or emergency number to contact, they are experiencing the situation very badly and are calling on their governments to organize their repatriation. 

Many students feel lonely in their apartments in the big industrial city of Kharkiv. The city has not fallen to Russian troops, but intense fighting continues in the area, according to the Pentagon. They have received no sign from their country's authorities since the start of the Russian invasion

They feel isolated because they have no news from their embassies. Some of these embassies have told them that if they go to the border with Poland, in Lviv, they will be taken care of there but there is nothing yet.

For two days, the daily life of the students has turned into a nightmare. During the night from Wednesday to Thursday, at 4 a.m., the shaking of the windows of their buildings and the bombings aroused them from their sleep.

Before that, everything was calm. They didn't know that they could wake up like that, overnight, with a lump in their stomachs.

The stations and the banks are closed, the metros are at a standstill, the buses too. The bombardments take place at one end of the city. People have been sleeping in the subways for two days, their parents are so scared  and they don't know what will happen the next day. After being woken up by bombardments, they expect just about anything.

On a WhatsApp conversation group, students of all nationalities exchange advice and experiences by hundreds of messages. Everyone wants to get out of the country, but in most Ukrainian cities, renting a car or finding a taxi has become a real obstacle course. 

The problem in Poland is that a lot of people are already trying to cross the border. They therefore do not know when they will be allowed to cross it. All appeal to their governments to organize their repatriation.

War in Ukraine: what economic consequences?

Commodity prices or envisaged sanctions… What are the economic consequences of the invasion of Ukraine by Russia? What could be the consequences of a country's isolation on the world economy and on Russia?

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has and will have repercussions on the global economy, notably on the price of raw materials, but also following a potential exclusion of Russia from the Swift network and possible economic isolation. Russian. Consequences all the more serious as it could be the most important conflict to take place on European soil since the Balkan wars in the 1990s.

Raw materials

 

Vladimir Putin chose to launch the offensive at dawn, Thursday, February 24, 2022. Around 5 a.m., Russian soldiers entered Ukrainian territory. The markets were still sleeping. At the opening, the price of raw materials soared.

The Russian economy depends on the export of raw materials. The sector represents 60% of Russian exports. Russia is the world's largest producer of wheat (Ukraine is fifth), one of the largest oil exporters, provides about 40% of European gas and produces large quantities of metals. The country is the leading producer of palladium, used for the construction of catalytic converters for cars in particular, the second largest producer of aluminum and nickel, and the seventh largest producer of copper in the world. Ukraine, on the other hand, is the world's largest producer of maize.

 

The barrel of oil exceeded 100 dollars per barrel, the ton of wheat reached a record level at 344 euros per ton and the price of natural gas jumped 40% in one day. Paradoxically, this is an advantage for Russia, because we have not stopped importing Russian raw materials for the moment. Germany, for example, is heavily dependent on Russian liquefied natural gas. Once an alternative to Russian raw materials is found, this excessive economic dependence will inevitably turn against the country.

 

However, it is currently difficult to do without Russian raw materials, especially gas. If Russian gas does not come to Europe, there is a real subject of gas prices in Europe. In other words, Europe currently has no immediate solution to replace gas imports from Russia.