As Vladimir Putin threatens nuclear escalation and Joe Biden promises to send more military equipment to Ukraine, there are warnings of “World War Three” on all sides. Pay them no heed. What lies ahead is not an apocalypse but a world-historic betrayal.
The present tensions are mostly a choreographed show of strength – in Washington and Moscow – to fill the time before Donald Trump’s inauguration on January 20. Having so often delayed the despatch of weapons or dithered over the use to which they might be put by Volodymyr Zelensky, Biden seeks to salvage some personal honour before he creeps from office and to give the Ukrainian president marginally more negotiating power when the talks begin.
