As everyone is now well aware, Russia invaded the separatist areas of Ukraine on Thursday, February 24 after they had been amassing troops on the border for the past few weeks. The Russians took over the Chernobyl Power Plant and have attacked major Ukrainian cities. So far, it it reported that 137 people have died and 316 have been injured due to this invasion. While everyone is very concerned about the Ukrainian people as they go through this, many are worried about what it may do to the American economy.

As anyone who spends money knows, prices for everything has severely inflated these past few months, and with the new conflict, those prices are probably only going to go up. Countries like the US, Britain, Japan, the other countries in NATO and the European Union have placed sanctions on Russia. These sanctions are meant to make the Russian economy hurt and crumble, but President Biden warns that may happen to Americans as well in the form of rising gas prices. These sanctions prevent the US from buying Russian oil, and if we don’t have that oil import, the price to refine and buy gasoline will go up.

Many people are also worried that this could be the start of World War III. For now, this conflict is only happening in Ukraine, but when allies get involved, things could escalate. Many are also worried about the prospects of China getting involved in the war as Russia’s unofficial ally, which would be bad news for the US. Being that 18.9% of US imports are from China. If China decided to stop exports to the US, the American economy would take a massive hit and plunge us into one of the worst depressions we’ve seen.

Many young people are also worried about a new draft if things continue to escalate. If a new world war does start, many young adults would be sent over to fight and die on foreign soil. But for now, it doesn’t seem that a world war is going to start. In fact, President Biden ordered 7,000 troops to Europe not to fight in Ukraine, but to aid NATO Allies, so so far there is no American fighting.

In the end, this war in Ukraine is going to hurt a lot of people from all around the world. Whether they are injured in the fighting or feeling the effects of sanctions, everyone will feel this conflict in some way or another.