Russia-Ukraine war could become “mother of all wars” — journalist

Journalist Vitaly Portnikov made this statement in an interview with Espreso ahead of Ukraine’s Independence Day.

“I believe Europeans understand this very clearly, and for a simple reason. If we accept the idea that borders can be changed by force, it will quickly become an epidemic. And, as a side note, no one needs convincing at the moment — just look at Donald Trump, who is already talking about Greenland and Canada,” he said.

According to the journalist, if it weren’t for Russian leader Putin’s aggression and the scale of impunity for it, Trump wouldn’t be saying this.

“He didn’t say this before. Remember Donald Trump during his first presidency. Try to put words about Greenland and Canada into his speeches and mind — it would never happen. But now Trump has realized that you can at least do this and nothing happens. So why not try?” Portnikov emphasized.

He added that it may turn out that Donald Trump is not the only one.

“In countries of the Global South, this could simply become an epidemic. Many countries want someone else’s territory. And eventually, it will spill over into Europe. Again, if it’s possible to easily annex foreign territory without any issues or agreement with other countries, it changes the whole world. That’s why the Russians keep saying: ‘We want one thing above all — to have you recognize the realities on the ground, withdraw your troops from the regions we annexed, and acknowledge that this is our territory. Then the war will end,’” the journalist said.

Portnikov emphasized that this is not the case.

“But if a war ends in this way, it opens the door to countless new conflicts. It would be the mother of all wars. Everyone will ask: ‘Why did this happen?’ Because the Russians occupied Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia regions of Ukraine, and Crimea, and forced Ukraine and other countries to recognize it as legitimate, as international law, as Lavrov says. In this situation, as you can understand, we could go down a path of changing international law in any way — if Russians can do it, why can’t others? It’s perfectly clear. It happened with the Sudetenland, you see? Czechoslovakia recognized that the Sudetenland was German. And what happened next? World War I,” he concluded.