What’s happening at UN4MUN/Crisis: North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)? This year, the topic of discussion is the situation in Ukraine. As you may know, there is a war raging between Russia and Ukraine. In Crisis committees, the debating process is a bit different. Crisis directors develop creative solutions and responses to the delegates’ directives. The debate develops much like a story with twists and turns.

    On day one, our esteemed keynote speaker Olek Shyn made an appearance at the debate and voiced his opinion on the situation in Ukraine as well as answered any questions the delegates had. “Russia is not a democratic country; they terrorize their citizens; they terrorize the citizens of Ukraine even more,” he said. From Olek’s perspective, the citizens of Ukraine are not free to express their culture because of their relationship with Russia. “For me, that’s not peace. For me, peace is winning over Russia,” Olek said. 

    After our guest speaker left, the delegates began lively debates and conversations. Power plants in Ukraine -- including a nuclear power plant -- had been damaged. In response, the delegate of Canada issued a directive wishing “to provide Ukraine with different variants of hydroelectric turbines” to make up for power loss.

    Later in the day, a second crisis update was announced. Classified documents were leaked, stating that Putin was not planning to use nuclear weapons against Ukraine. Delegates agreed to pass the delegate of Iceland’s directive of preventing public reply to the documents.

    The third crisis update of the day was quite a surprise. “Pyongyang (capital of North Korea) announced a partnership with Russia, and large amounts of vehicles and 15,000 troops were spotted moving between North Korea and Eastern parts of Russia.”  In response, the delegates passed a directive stating that Ukraine was to “privately barricade, block or destroy bridges and roads that lead from the Russian occupied territory to the free Ukrainian region.”

On day two, Slobidskyi District in the city of Kharkiv was attacked by Russian tactical nuclear weapons. To address this concern, the delegates agreed upon sending troops and transportation to assess the situation and restore balance. As troops were sent to Moldova, they engaged with Russia’s forces. However, casualties were unknown. The delegates began to take action and prevent Russian advance in hopes of stopping any more Russian control, successfully forcing the Russians to retreat from Moldova.

Overall, the debate at UN4MUN/Crisis: NATO was lively and intense. Daria Parker, the delegate of Canada, said “I really enjoyed debating and hanging out with delegates.” We hope everyone enjoyed the debate and conference at this year’s TASMUN!

While the war between Russia and Ukraine has not ceased, it is hopeful that this conference has built an understanding in all delegates of the severity of the Russo-Ukrainian war.