There are moments in history that appear as critical to the world as they are terrifying. Just this century: the 9/11 attacks in 2001; the U.S.“shock-and-awe″ war on Saddam Hussein’s Iraq two years later; the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 killed millions and upended life; and most recently the Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine by Russia, bringing ruinous war back to Europe.
FILE – In this image made from video released by the Russian Presidential Press Service, Russian President Vladimir Putin addressees the nation in Moscow, Russia, on Feb. 24, 2022. (Russian Presidential Press Service via AP, File)
Coming seven months into the conflict and with near daily nuclear threats by backs-to-the wall Kremlin leaders, Putin chilllingly vowed to protect the newly annexed regions by “all available means.” Almost immediately, Ukraine’s president countered by applying to join the NATO military alliance, setting Russia up to face off against the West.
In this photo released by Ukrainian Presidential Press Office, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy leads a meeting of the National Security and Defense Council in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, Sept. 30, 2022. Ukraine’s president says his country is submitting an “accelerated” application to join the NATO military alliance. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP)In this photo released by Ukrainian Presidential Press Office, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, background centre, leads a meeting of the National Security and Defense Council in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, Sept. 30, 2022. Ukraine’s president says his country is submitting an “accelerated” application to join the NATO military alliance. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP)
Any thought that this kind of harrowing brinkmanship had ended with the 1980s when the last Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and then U.S. President Ronald Reagan eased the Cold War and the specter of nuclear Armageddon, is now gone.
FILE – President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, right, meet for the first time before summit talks at the villa Fleur D’Eau at Versoix near Geneva, Switzerland on Nov. 19, 1985. Russian news agencies are reporting that former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev has died at 91. The Tass, RIA Novosti and Interfax news agencies cited the Central Clinical Hospital. (AP Photo/Scott Stewart, File)
Even with the horror of Japan’s Hiroshima and Nagasaki burned on humanity’s collective consciousness, the world finds itself once again contemplating the possible use of nuclear weapons.
From left, Moscow-appointed head of Kherson Region Vladimir Saldo, Moscow-appointed head of Zaporizhzhia region Yevgeny Balitsky, Russian President Vladimir Putin, center, Denis Pushilin, the leader of the Donetsk People’s Republic and Leonid Pasechnik, leader of self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic wave during a ceremony to sign the treaties for four regions of Ukraine to join Russia, at the Kremlin, Moscow, Friday, Sept. 30, 2022. The signing of the treaties making the four regions part of Russia follows the completion of the Kremlin-orchestrated “referendums.” (Mikhail Metzel, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
After a series of humiliating setbacks on the battlefield, Putin has made it painfully clear that any attack on the newly annexed regions would be construed as an attack on Russia. He would use any means available in his vast arsenal — the nod to nuclear weapons was barely veiled — and wasn’t bluffing, he said.
Participants listen to Russian President Vladimir Putin during celebrations marking the incorporation of regions of Ukraine to join Russia in the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Friday, Sept. 30, 2022. The signing of the treaties making the four regions part of Russia follows the completion of the Kremlin-orchestrated “referendums.” (Mikhail Metzel, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
“We’re in an escalation phase, and Russia now is faced with a series of more extreme choices than before,” said Nigel Gould-Davies, the former U.K. ambassador to Belarus.
From left, Denis Pushilin, the leader of the Donetsk People’s Republic and Leonid Pasechnik, leader of self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic, Moscow-appointed head of Kherson Region Vladimir Saldo, Moscow-appointed head of Zaporizhzhia region Yevgeny Balitsky, and Artem Vladimirovich Zhoga, commander of the Sparta Battalion of Donetsk People’s Republic separatist force listen to Russian President Vladimir Putin during a ceremony in the Kremlin to sign the treaties for four regions of Ukraine to join Russia in the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Friday, Sept. 30, 2022. The signing of the treaties making the four regions part of Russia follows the completion of the Kremlin-orchestrated “referendums”. (Mikhail Metzel, Sputnik, Government Pool Photo via AP)
Gould-Davies, who is senior fellow for Russia and Eurasia at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said Russia’s attempts to win the war by more moderate means have failed, and Putin is now having to increase the “range and severity of the measures” Russia is taking, including annexation and nuclear threats.
People gather to celebrate the incorporation of regions of Ukraine to join Russia, in Red Square in Moscow, Russia, Friday, Sept. 30, 2022. The signing of the treaties making the four regions part of Russia follows the completion of the Kremlin-orchestrated “referendums.” The sign on construction reads: “Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, Russia. People’s choice. Always together”.(AP Photo/Dmitry Serebryakov)
Even as Moscow annexed the four Ukrainian regions in a move that will not be recognized by an overwhelming majority of the world, tens of thousands of Russian men called up to fight in the war were fleeing Russia.
Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during celebrations marking the incorporation of regions of Ukraine to join Russia, in Red Square in Moscow, Russia, Friday, Sept. 30, 2022. The signing of the treaties making the four regions part of Russia follows the completion of the Kremlin-orchestrated “referendums.” (Gavriil Grigorov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
Former Kremlin speechwriter turned political analyst Abbas Gallyamov on Friday linked Russia’s reversals in the war with the annexation push. “It looks like an attempt to respond somehow, and it looks quite pathetic. Ukrainians are doing something, taking steps in the real material world, while the Kremlin is building some kind of virtual reality, incapable of responding in the real world,” he said.
People make preparations for a concert at the Red Square, with constructions reading the words ”Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, Russia”, and the St. Basil’s Cathedral and Lenin Mausoleum on the background, in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, Sept. 29, 2022. The Kremlin said that Russian President Vladimir Putin and the leaders of the four regions of Ukraine that held a referendum on joining Russia will attend a ceremony to sign documents on the regions’ incorporation into Russia, which will be followed by a big concert on Red Square. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)
Driving Putin are years of perceived humiliation at the hands of the West after the demise of the Soviet Union. And the fact that previous bloodshed and atrocities committed against Chechnya and Syria escaped severe international intervention seemed to give him the conviction that he had carte blanche to rebuild an Imperial Russia.
That’s not the case now.
President Joe Biden speaks about the ongoing federal response efforts for Hurricane Ian from the Roosevelt Room at the White House in Washington, Friday, Sept. 30, 2022. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
Billions of dollars in United States and European military aid are helping highly motivated Ukrainian forces liberate territory in the war amid clear signals from Washington that ‘’catastrophic consequences” will follow any use by Moscow of non-conventional weapons.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg speaks during a media conference at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Friday, Sept. 30, 2022. (AP Photo/Olivier Matthys)
On a day like Friday, Sept. 30, as Russia’s war in Ukraine enters a flammable, even more dangerous phase, the question remains; Is a wider war looming with devastating results for the world, perhaps not seen since 1939-1945?
By TAMER FAKAHANY Associated Press Tamer Fakahany is AP’s deputy director for global news coordination and has helped direct international coverage for the AP for 20 years. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/tamerfakahany. Associated Press writer Danica Kirka in London contributed to this report.
