Russia began an invasion into the country of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, in an escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War that began in 2014. This violent unprovoked attack on Ukraine and its people is the largest conventional military attack in Europe since World War II.

     Leading up to this escalation throughout 2021 and the early part of 2022, Russian military forces amassed along the border of Ukraine which escalated the tensions between the two countries and strained their foreign relations.

     The United States along with other prominent countries responded to the invasion by sending what they perceived to be a strong message that an invasion would be met with severe consequences for the Russian economy.

     But as we can see today the sanctions have not affected the invasion of Ukraine at all. Instead these sanctions have hurt the United States by increasing the cost of energy, gas prices, and other exports around the world. The United States must stay out of the war completely because it is not helping anyone and actually making the escalation worse, according to an article released by the New York Times.  

     For example, the average cost of gas in the United States of America has officially broken the record set back in 2008 when the national average rose to $4.11. It now stands as the highest average gas price in U.S. history at $4.17, according to USA Today. But Russian gas prices have not been affected as much as one would think, gas is currently $2.10 in dollars per gallon, according to the New York Times.

     There is one root cause to when all of this escalation truly started and that was on Tuesday, November 3, 2020 on the date of the United States Presidential Election where the United States of America first became perceived as weak and would no longer be feared and respected on the world stage. 

     But how we as a country are perceived on the global stage plays a prominent role in how other countries make their foreign relation decisions. A great example of this is Russia. Currently, the Russian government does not fear any other country.

      America used to have a policy that was in effect which was called isolationism and that is what the founding fathers intended for the future of this great nation. They should continue to follow this policy of isolationism because in doing so we will not be taken for granted and abused by other countries for something we should not be involved in. 

     The political philosophy of isolationism is a process that advocates for a national foreign policy that is against involvement in the political affairs, and especially the wars, of other countries. This in turn means that isolationism fundamentally advocates for a stance of neutrality and opposes entanglement in military alliances and mutual defense pacts.

   Ukraine is not a member of the Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and thus we are not obligated to help until that happens.