If Ukraine falls or is forced to give up territory it's going to set a terrible precedence that will be a green light for dictators to try taking more land through war. The end result is going to be an insurmountable amount of needless deaths and way more money spent than the cost of supporting Ukraine now. In fact even if we ignore other negative ripple effects caused by Ukraine loosing we still see that supporting Ukraine now is half the cost of letting Russia win (source: https://www.kyivpost.com/post/65257 )
But you, yes you have the power help stop Russia's evil war with just a few minutes of your time. They say that a grain of rice can tip a scale, the email you send or the phone call you make could be like putting the final grain of rice in the balance scale that tips the scale in Ukraine's favor.
All you need to do is try contacting politicians in your country and asking that they do whatever they can to support Ukraine. Whether it's sending aid, weapons, money or anything, it will help. For the US you can follow this guide here for how to contact them: https://www.usa.gov/elected-officials. The process of contacting politicians in your country may vary but I would suspect it to be pretty straightforward, just dial a number, send them a letter or an email. Some politicians may even still have a fax machine if you're into that. But no matter what I suspect you'll find sending them a message easier than you thought.
In addition while you're contacting them why not consider bringing up these topics that could also really help Ukraine:
-
Teach students how to recognize disinformation, rage-bait, foreign propaganda operations and cognitive warfare operations. From my research Finland is leading the way with this. This is a good short article about what Finland is doing about disinformation: https://finland.fi/life-society/educated-decisions-finnish-media-literacy-deters-disinformation/ I hope more schools can do something similar.
-
Increase in cybersecurity and crackdown on organized crime and corruption. Have you heard about a company being hacked with ransomware? If they pay where does the money go? The answer often time ends up being Russia and if not it's still going to some other criminal group that for sure doesn't deserve it. Organized and white collar crime can sometimes end up leading back to Russia so more emphasis on this can ultimately help stop money and sanctioned parts from making it back into Russia. It's believed that some hackers are either part of the Russian government or have their backing so these ransom payments may be funding the war.
-
Faster transition to renewable energy. Russia's big export is fossil fuels. They use the money to fund the war. The less demand for their products the better. Demand a fast as possible transition to renewable energy as possible. Also consider getting solar or installing a heat pump for your home especially if you plan to live there for a long time. Note that solar doesn't have to be complicated. Some countries allow for balcony solar which is a great way to get started with solar.
Thank you so much for everything you do! I understand not all Democrats are perfect either but we have chances to make change there too including using the primary process to remove corrupt politicians.