Op-Ed: Why should Portage County care about what is happening in Ukraine?

General Wesley Clark, former NATO commander, spoke at Hiram College about the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Photo by Renée Zimelis Ruchotzke

Op-Ed: Why should Portage County care about what is happening in Ukraine?

- Renée Zimelis Ruchotzke

It was a packed house at the Kennedy Center Ballroom Thursday night, including several dozen students from Streetsboro, Aurora and other local high schools, to see General Wesley Clark, the former commander of NATO.

Clark took the stage and laid the groundwork for current events by sharing the history of Ukraine and its relationship to Russia, starting with Catherine the Great in the 1700s. He also talked about the history of NATO (which he had served as Supreme Allied Commander from 1997 – 2000 during the later stages of the Balkan conflict), from its formation in the Cold War of the 1950s to today. 

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