Irish Examiner view: Ukraine crisis blows a cold east wind

Talk of 'unpredictable and grave consequences' for Europe

Russian troops take part in drills at the Kadamovskiy firing range in the Rostov region in southern Russia last week. Russia has rejected Western complaints about its troop buildup near Ukrainey. Picture: AP Photo

At the end of His Last Bow, the final appearance of Arthur Conan Doyle’s fictional detective Sherlock Holmes, he warns Dr Watson that there’s “an east wind coming” and that it will be “cold and bitter”. 

This story was published in the fourth year of the First World War, although the action is set ahead of that terrible conflict and forms part of a spy thriller plot. The adversary on that occasion is Germany.