Just a few weeks after its 30th anniversary, the Russian Federation has gone to war with Ukraine, a country proud of its history, but which spent 700 years largely under foreign rule. The initial Russian offensive began on three fronts on Thursday to the sound of a missile barrage. The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, sent tanks to pound Ukraine’s cities. His warships attacked from the sea. Innocent civilians are being killed, their homes reduced to rubble. With Russian forces closing on Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the government asking its three million people to take up arms, Mr Putin’s war “to stop genocide” may promote one.
Mr Putin is acting like a thug. He is threatening the international system by taking what he wants, irrespective of the human cost. A humanitarian crisis looms as tens of thousands of refugees cross into eastern Europe. The images beamed from the streets of Ukraine have rekindled memories of the wars of the 20th century – of a kind that once seemed unimaginable in 2022. Many have been left to wonder: is this a new cold war? Or the beginning of a third world war? Of the two, the former is unwanted but preferable to a global conflagration. » | Editorial | Friday, February 25, 2022
