Will Russia’s war against Ukraine spiral into World War III?

#WorldwarIII#UkraineRussia#PutinBiden MOSCOW: For the past several weeks’ speculations have been rife in media and social media whether the antagonism between Russia and Ukraine will spiral into World War III. Despite several calls for peace and concerted efforts by international leaders to prevent Russian invasion of Ukraine War, Russian president Vladimir Putin on Feb 24 Thursday declared war on Ukraine. For the past several weeks he had hoodwinked the international community by massing troops near Ukraine border in the name of militarily exercise. Later Russia said it was pulling back troops and even released video of what it said were tanks pulling back and being loaded onto rail transports. But now Putin’s war cry has once again stoked fears of the world inching closer to World War III though all world leaders have categorically ruled out the possibility of the Russia-Ukraine conflict turning into a full scale war. I’m K C Asok from Kaumudy Global and let us take a quick look at some facts in this regard. Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned other countries that any attempt to interfere with the Russian action would lead to "consequences". "Anyone who tries to interfere with us, or even more so, to create threats for our country and our people, must know that Russia`s response will be immediate and will lead you to such consequences as you have never before experienced in your history," that was Putin’s strong warning. Putin’s argument is that the war is to demilitarize and de-Nazify Ukraine and defend people "who have been suffering persecution and genocide for eight years at the hands of the Kyiv regime. Responding swiftly to Russian President Vladimir Putin's order sending troops to separatist regions of Ukraine, world leaders had hit back with non-military actions like sanctions against Moscow in hopes of averting a full-blown war in Europe. But now, tougher sanctions will follow in coming days. "That's a world war when Americans and Russians start shooting at each other," said US President Joe Biden earlier this month, vowing he would not deploy American troops to Ukraine under any circumstances. But western leaders still fear Russia could be poised to make a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Only President Putin and his trusted inner circle know how deep into Ukraine he intends to send his troops. But for Nato and the West, the time to act will come if Russia threatens a Nato member state. Under Nato's Article 5 the entire western military alliance is obliged to come to the defence of any member state that comes under attack. Ukraine is not a member of Nato, although it wants to join but President Putin is determined to block any such move from Ukraine. Eastern European countries like Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania or Poland - once part of Moscow's orbit in Soviet times - are all now Nato members. They are feeling seriously nervous that Russian forces might not stop at Ukraine and instead use some pretext to "come to the aid" of the ethnic Russian minorities in the Baltics and invade. That is the reason why Nato recently sent reinforcements to bolster its Eastern European members as a deterrent. As long as there is no direct conflict between Russia and Nato then there is no chances for a full-scale world war. It may be recalled that Russia and America have, between them, over 8,000 deployable nuclear warheads so the stakes here are extremely high. Meanwhile, a senior British military source recently said that Putin is not about to attack Nato. He just wants to turn Ukraine into a vassal state like Belarus." But the unpredictable thing is the state of Putin's mind. His speech on Monday resembled more that of an angry dictator than a clever strategist. Calling Nato "evil", he effectively told Ukraine it had no right to exist as a sovereign nation independent from Russia. This is a worrying factor. Moreover, US president Biden has held Russia solely responsible for the current War against Ukraine. "The United States and its allies will respond in a united and decisive way to an unprovoked and unjustified attack by Russia military forces on Ukraine," Biden said after blasts were heard in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on Thursday.