Don’t Kid Yourselves – It’s World War Three, Stupid!

For the past 1,238-plus days, since the latest Russian invasion of Ukraine, Ukrainian officials, the free world and the Ukrainian diaspora have been tripping over themselves in search of a proper designation for this bloody and merciless event. Everyone ultimately settled on “full-scale invasion” as if the modifier really adds anything to the term invasion. What’s a partial invasion? Russia has lost more than one million of its cutthroats in uniforms, which should be enough evidence about the scale of this newest Russian act of aggression against Ukraine.

In the course of the past three-and-a-half years, officials, pundits and even aggressors have warned that this conflict and Ukrainians’ national resistance could lead to World War Three.

Well, don’t kid yourselves – it’s already World War Three, stupid, to paraphrase James Carville.

Nation states have been lining up behind Russia and Ukraine with a range of military and non-military aid. Understand that there’s a substantial difference between the two sides and their allies with one being the perpetrator and the other victim. In its age-old efforts to invade, subdue, occupy, subjugate and annihilate Ukraine and Ukrainians, not only is Moscow coldheartedly mobilizing its own people as inevitable frontline cannon fodder, but it is securing political and military aid from foreign criminal locations. The drones and missiles used against Ukrainian residential buildings and unarmed civilians are manufactured in Iran. The Ukrainian Quarterly reported in the past that Russia and Iran have agreed to help one another by eliminating each other’s enemies Ukraine and Israel. Iran’s loathsome participation in this war begs the question why not launch an Operation Crossbow raid on the Iranian drone factories?

According to published reports, these are the countries of dubious reputations that more or less support Russia’s war against Ukraine: Belarus, China, Iran and North Korea. The war against Ukraine has also given rise to the concept of the “Axis of Upheaval” in which the participating countries are seen as seeking to challenge the existing international order and potentially align with Russia’s goals. In other words, countries that associate with Iran – and there are many such terrorist nations and alliances such as the Taliban and Al-Qaeda – are chomping at the bit in anticipation of doing Moscow’s bidding to harm the United States.

The idea of a Third World War has understandably scared the free world, however, just as in 1939, it must muster the strength and determination to defeat the contemporary evil that resides in the Kremlin for peace to return to Europe.

One beneficial development that could bring the war to an end and the evacuation of murderous, thieving Russian soldiers is what seems to be the end of the honeymoon between Washington and Moscow. President Donald J. Trump’s recent well publicized change of heart about his erstwhile best friend Russian dictator Vladimir Putin should reinforce in the doubting Thomases’ minds that the Russian leader at least is deceitful and should not be trusted.

I’ve written about this in previous blogs.

Furthermore, in recent days, stories in a variety of mainstream media revealed that the First Lady Melania Trump, who grew up in Soviet-dominated Slovenia, to her credit finally convinced her husband about Putin’s dark side. After all, she probably told him, how can you engage in conversations after conversations with Putin, publicly praise his credibility and promises, only to be slapped in the face by his almost simultaneous bombardment of Ukrainian civilian targets, schools and hospitals?

It was a relief to hear President Trump declare that Putin isn’t a nice person, that “I'm not happy with him, I can tell you that much right now. This is killing a lot of people,” and he’s throwing around a lot of “bullshit.”

Trump warned Putin that he has 50 days to stop the war or else the United States would institute severe, debilitating sanctions against Russia. Trump also raised the ante by suggesting to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that he should also consider bombing Saint Petersburg, which is an exceptionally bitter and painful idea for all Russians because the second largest Russian city is the heart and soul of the country. It's also Putin’s hometown.

Russia’s reply came in two parts. The verbal one reaffirms that Moscow is adamant about its demands. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has listed Moscow’s oft-repeated demands for a peace deal that would end its ongoing invasion of Ukraine, including Kyiv’s demilitarization and neutrality, international recognition of territory occupied by Moscow, and the lifting of sanctions.

“These provisions must be included in a legally binding agreement for peaceful settlement,” Lavrov told Hungarian publication Magyar Nemzet in an interview.

Lavrov said an end to the security threat posed to Russia by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s (NATO) expansion, including its potential inclusion of Ukraine, was essential. He demanded the demilitarization of Ukraine to ensure Kyiv’s neutrality. Lavrov also said his country wants protections for ethnic Russians and Russian culture in Ukraine, which he accused Kyiv of “destroying” since 2014. Quite the contrary, Russian language and culture is alive and well in Ukraine – more than the Ukrainian language and culture is in Russia.

He demanded “international legal recognition of the new territorial realities,” citing Russian occupation of Crimea, Sevastopol, Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson. And Lavrov also called for “lifting sanctions on Russia, rescinding all lawsuits against Russia, and returning the illegally seized Western-based assets.”

These demands would turn Ukraine into a captive nation of Russia again.

The second reply came in the form of new overnight bombardment of Ukrainian cities, according to Ukrainian and non-Ukrainian media.

Russia again launched a massive overnight assault on Ukrainian cities just hours after Trump’s 50-day ceasefire ultimatum, raising questions about the credibility of his threats and the future of the conflict. The bombing, however, reconfirmed Moscow’s intention to subjugate and annihilate all things Ukrainian. Trump’s latest tactic, a threat to impose 100% tariffs on Russia unless it agreed to a ceasefire within 50 days, has been largely dismissed by Kremlin officials as political theater. Russian state media and high-profile allies like Dmitry Medvedev openly mocked the threat, with one official calling it a distraction from Trump’s domestic political controversies.

Despite Trump’s threat, Russia went ahead with the latest large-scale attack Monday night into Tuesday, firing about 400 Shahed drones and one ballistic missile across multiple Ukrainian cities, including Kharkiv, Kryvyi Rih, and Vinnytsia, according to the Daily Beast. Ukraine’s air force said it intercepted most of the drones, but more than 50 got through, damaging infrastructure and killing at least two civilians. A 17-year-old boy was among those critically injured, according to regional authorities.

If Putin and his gang do agree to a negotiated peace, which for all intents and purposes would be as meaningless as it was in the past, Kyiv and Washington must insist that Russia evacuates all of its criminal cutthroats from Ukraine back to Russia, that it never returns to Ukraine, that it stops interfering in Ukraine’s internal and external policies, and that it respects Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty and border.