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LONDON (AP) — There are some moments in history that are both terrifying and important to the world.
Just this century: the 9/11 attacks in 2001. Saddam Hussein’s US “shock and awe” war against Iraq two years later. The 2020 coronavirus pandemic has killed millions and changed lives forever.and more recently February 24 Russia invades UkraineBrought a devastating war back to Europe.
Friday seemed to be one of those watershed moments Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a treaty illegally annexing much of eastern and southern Ukraine, as he did with Crimea in 2014.
Seven months into the conflict and under near-daily nuclear threats from Kremlin leaders who have turned their backs on the wall, Putin has called the newly annexed territories “available”. Calmly vowed to protect by all means. Almost immediately, the Ukrainian president responded by applying to join the NATO military alliance, pitting Russia against the West.
This kind of disastrous brinkman act was the last Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev Then US President Ronald Reagan eased the Cold War and the specter of nuclear Armageddon is now gone.
Despite the horrors of Japan’s Hiroshima and Nagasaki being seared into the collective consciousness of humanity, the world is again contemplating the possibility of using nuclear weapons.
After a series of humiliating setbacks on the battlefield, Putin made it poignant that any attack on newly annexed territories would be interpreted as an attack on Russia. He uses every means available in his vast arsenal— A Tribute to Nuclear Weapons It was barely covered—and wasn’t bluffing, he said.
“We are in an escalation phase and Russia now faces a series of more extreme choices than before,” said Nigel Gould-Davies, the former British ambassador to Belarus.
Gould Davis, a senior fellow in Russia and Eurasia at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said Russia’s attempt to win the war through more moderate means had failed, and that Putin now “declared the scope and severity of the measures.” ‘ must be increased. Russia has taken, including annexation and nuclear threats.
Even when Moscow annexed four regions of Ukraine, a move disapproved by the overwhelming majority of the world, tens of thousands of Russians called up to join the war fled Russia.
Former Kremlin speechwriter-turned-political analyst Abbas Galyamov on Friday linked Russia’s reversal in the war to pushing for annexation. “It seems to be trying to cope somehow, it looks pretty pathetic. cannot be handled in the world of
Putin is driven by years of post-Soviet humiliation by the West. And the fact that previous bloodshed and atrocities committed against Chechnya and Syria escaped serious international intervention gives him confidence that he has a blank mandate to rebuild Imperial Russia. It seemed like
Not now.
Billions of dollars in U.S. and European military aid will be used by the highly motivated Ukrainian military amid clear signals from Washington that the use of non-conventional weapons by Moscow will be followed by “catastrophic consequences”. It helps liberate territories in war.
On days like Friday September 30, when Russia’s war in Ukraine enters a flammable and even more dangerous phase, questions remain. Is a wider war, perhaps unseen until 1939-1945, with devastating consequences for the world?
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Tamer Fakahany is AP’s Deputy Director of Global News Coordination and has directly supported AP’s international coverage for 20 years. Follow him on Twitter (https://twitter.com/tamerfakahany). Associated Press writer Danika Kahka, who lives in London, contributed to this report.
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