By Bryan Aviles
CCC Journalism Program
BLACKWOOD – Camden County College students are reacting as the war in Ukraine enters its second month.
Maddie Cozens, an arts major at Camden County College, said she has a friend in Ukraine and he and his family are going through a bad time in the middle of the war. She said if she were in their situation, she would flee the country as quickly as possible.
She added she believes Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted to reclaim Ukraine, which became a separate country when the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics dissolved in 1991, and dislikes what he is doing to Ukraine and its citizens.
She said she believes the United States and the European Union are making a strong effort to try to stop the war by imposing financial sanctions on Russia, including blocking Putin’s banking transactions. However, she stated she hopes these actions will not draw retaliation by Putin, such as by cyberwarfare against the U.S. and EU.
She added she thinks it will be very difficult for the war to end soon, as more and more Ukrainians and Russians die in it.
“I thought something very important, that it is very difficult to put yourself in people’s shoes,” she said. “All that is different from how we are here in the United States, a country where it is safe.”
Gamze Behram, who is studying to become a math teacher, said she did not know why Putin would start a war and was concerned it would end with destruction in Ukraine and the deaths of many Ukrainians and Russians. She added she feels bad for all the people who are suffering and hopes the war will end as soon as possible.
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