It is just under a month since Russia declared a unilaterally-waged war on Ukraine on land and by air. What the world has witnessed is the unbridled destruction of a democratic nation, Ukraine, by a heavily armed, nuclear weapons power and veto-holding Permanent Member of the United Nations Security Council, viz., Russia.
This UN status was obtained by Russia as an uncontested residual legatee of the Soviet Union of which Russia and Ukraine were large parts; the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) unravelled into 15 nations in 1988-91 — Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan.
