Going into the fourth week of this invasion, Russian forces have besieged Mariupol.  Mariupol is a southern port city in Ukraine.  As an industrial port city, Mariupol holds many advantages, and would be a large blow against the Ukrainian economy if the Russians were to take it.

As is expected, Ukraine is also having a refugee crisis.  Roughly 3.5 million native Ukrainian civilians have attempted to flee the bombarded country.  As they flee Ukraine, they are making their way to non-hostile neighboring countries to continue their lives.  However, as not all are able to flee, some native Ukrainians have attempted to move around in Ukraine to safer cities.

The Russian military has claimed to have fired hyper-sonic missiles on targets in Ukraine.  The significance in this lies in the fact that if this information is true, it will be the first time that hyper-sonic weapons have ever been used.  These missiles travel between 5 and 25 times the speed of sound, traveling miles per second. Just like all weapons, these missiles are dangerous, but the fact that they can move faster than the speed of sound makes them increasingly hard to counter.  Containing echos of the Space Race and Nuclear Race, the U.S. has been pushing to make their own hyper-sonic missiles.

On Monday, President Biden also warned of potential Russian cyber-attacks.  This has provided the government an opportunity to increase cyber-security and better protect technology from potential attacks.  The Department of Homeland Security’s Cyber-security and Infrastructure Security Agency(CISA) specifically, has been working with other organizations to help protect critical infrastructure and systems.

It is also reported that isles in the South China Sea have been, and are being militarized, while President Xi Jinping assured that they would not be militarized.  This, along with Xi’s meeting with Putin have made the U.S. suspicious of where China will officially stand in this war.  Simply put, if China were to join Russia in their invasion of Ukraine, it would lead to increased world-wide tension.

As of now, the Ukrainian Invasion continues, but total war is still being avoided.  The choices that world leaders have yet to make will have significant effects on the next steps in this dangerous time.