The Spillover from War

The failure of efforts to stop the war may lead to situations that are uncontrollable as the war escalates.

Escalation is inherent in every war, and that is true for the war in Europe today. Vladimir Putin wants to annul Ukraine as an independent and sovereign country, while Volodymyr Zelenskyy is not only defending it, but wants to recover what has been lost now and in 2014 when Russia illegally seized Crimea and the Russian secessionists took over part of the Donbass Basin.

Efforts so far to deescalate the conflict have been futile. Sanctions have served to weaken the invader, but not to stop or dampen the aggression. Nor have talks between the two parties, now on hold for weeks, succeeded. The humanitarian corridors, the rescue of civilians who are surrounded in Mariupol and proposed cease-fires, such as that U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres proposed on the occasion of the Orthodox Easter, have failed. The high-ranking international U.N. official was humiliated by the Kremlin, as evidenced by his reception at a long table of enemies and by the greeting the Kremlin sent to Guterres by way of launching two missiles at Kyiv while Guterres toured the city.

Yesterday’s visit to Kyiv by Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi conveyed support for the $33 billion in financial and military aid that Joe Biden is seeking from Congress, a package which is almost as much as the financial package the U.S. provided to fight Adolf Hitler in 1941.

It is not so much with Zelenskyy that Putin wants to negotiate, but with Washington.

Thus, there are the public outbursts, especially in the Kremlin media, which turn the language about the war of aggression against Ukraine on its head, as if it were Russia under attack and thus justified in defending itself with all weapons, including nuclear weapons. The war is dragging on, and with time, the risks of facing unforeseeable and overwhelming consequences are growing.