I want to reinforce that I do not support this war. The world cannot afford to be forced into another catastrophic world war. The world has been horrified by Putin’s attack on Ukraine and we all hope it comes to an end soon. I pray that God will look after the Ukrainian people who have been so very hurt by this war, and for the three million displaced refugees who have lost their homes and fled their country.

Despite all the wrong that’s been caused, I am feeling that we haven’t made a genuine effort to try to understand Putin better. It’s very convenient to label him as pure evil because he was the first offender who attacked a sovereign nation. What he did was wrong. The first offender is usually seen as the guilty one, and everyone hates the guilty offender. As a result, we want to bomb the bejesus out of Putin and the Russian army, and to let him off the hook would be a betrayal of democratic sensibilities.

However, what I have not heard much about in public conversation is a genuine inquiry into Putin’s reason for his attack on Ukraine. I mean: “What does Vladimir Putin really want?” and most importantly, “Why did he do this?”

The issues behind this war might be very complicated, perhaps more complex than it looks. I don’t think this is a simple black and white issue; nor is it a straight-forward good versus evil issue (as it has been portrayed by the media). Good is often mixed with evil with lots of gray areas.

What aren’t we investigating more in depth the reason for Putin’s attack on Ukraine? It might be a key to solving this crisis. From his perspective, did he actually have good reasons for his offensive? Security? Or was it simply a land-grab? Or might there have been other reasons? Are we missing something here?