(RightWing.org) – In 2014, Russian President Vladimir Putin “annexed” the Crimea region of Ukraine and backed separatist movements in two provinces in the Donbas region on the border between the two nations. On February 24, 2022, he launched an all-out offensive hoping to take the capital city of Kyiv within a few days — an effort analysts believe is an attempt to reassemble the now-defunct Soviet Union. There is now growing concern he is planning a major spring offensive with the help of another Communist nation that could supply weapons and other lethal aid to help him execute his plan.
World War III?
There have been concerns that the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and its ruling body, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), have been strengthening political and economic ties with Moscow. Should their cooperation evolve to a point where Putin’s military is provided with weapons and ammunition to support the war, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy believes it would set off a worldwide conflict.
Zelenskyy’s comments should not necessarily be seen as an attempt to garner more Western money and technology when one considers other PRC policies in other areas of the world. They have long taken an aggressive stance to protect what they view as their sovereign territory, including the Republic of China (ROC/Taiwan) and almost the entirety of the South China Sea. They continually fly military aircraft into the air defense zone around the island nation and have recently engaged a Philippine Coast Guard ship with a green laser, temporarily blinding some of its crewmembers.
Although the PRC has nominally adhered to international sanctions against Russia for its attempted takeover of Ukraine, the United States Commerce Department added five companies in June 2022 (some state-owned) to the “Entity List,” which blocks them from buying American technology. Along with those companies and two research institutes that supply nonlethal aid to Putin, there have also been reports of Beijing buying and transporting Russian oil.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with China’s top diplomat, State Councilor Wang Yi while both were attending the Munich Security Conference on February 18. According to a State Department readout published on its official website, the two spoke on several delicate topics.
One of the issues under discussion was the now-infamous spy balloon that President Joe Biden ordered the military to shoot down, but only after it had transversed across the United States from Alaska through South Carolina. Blinken also warned Wang “about the implications and consequences if China provided material support to Russia” in its war in Ukraine.
The CCP-affiliated news site Global Times quoted a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson and said, “[the United States is] spreading false information about China supplying weapons” to the Russians. The article also accused America of using the conflict to make money for the defense industry and implying Washington is willing to fight what is essentially a proxy war until there is only one Ukrainian left standing.
A Global Times editorial from February 21, announced that Councilor Wang is heading to Russia to demonstrate to the world the West will not succeed in its attempts “to hijack China-Russia relations.” Added to that, Putin is fanning the flames of war from the Kremlin, leaving some people to think the situation could evolve into WWIII.
Russia Weighs In
Putin has announced Russia is suspending its participation in New START — the final nuclear weapons treaty that exists between his country and the United States. Also, he is demanding a United Nations investigation into possible American involvement in the explosion of an underwater segment of the Nord Stream gas pipeline.
This claim is based on the fact the United States had not sued investigative reporter Seymour Hersh for publishing an article that made the allegations. According to the Russian state-run Tass newspaper, the failure to bring a slander lawsuit against the writer is an admission of guilt.
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