Irish Examiner View: Open conflict between Nato and old Soviet empire now closer than ever before

Firefighters work to extinguish multiple fires after a Russian attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on Saturday, April 16. Picture: Felipe Dana/AP.

It is now 54 days since Vladimir Putin sent his forces into Ukraine on what it pleases him to call a “special military operation” and what the rest of the world knows to be a bloody act of invasion which has changed the balance of power in Europe for at least the next decade and, quite possibly, forever.

On that dire Thursday at 5.30am Moscow time (3.30am in Ireland) and citing Article 51 of Part 7 of the UN Charter, the Russian leader acted, he said, to support the Donetsk People’s Republic and the Luhansk People’s Republic. He called for the “demilitarisation and denazification” of Ukraine.

We are now perilously closer to open conflict between Nato and the old Soviet empire than ever before, and the gap has narrowed over the weekend. 

Forensic examiners confirm that genocide is taking place. US congressmen are drawing comparisons with the Korean War, which lasted for three years. Putin, warns the US secretary of state Anthony Blinken, is unlikely to change course unless he is faced with an overwhelming military defeat. Before that happens, we face the battle of the Donbas where more Russian artillery and airpower will be brought to bear.

In the UK, long-term plans are under way to store enormous gas and hydrogen reserves under the Irish Sea as part of the European strategic response to the stranglehold that Russia has on energy supply and to enable part of that capacity for this winter. 

Within the next three months, the EU has to decide if it is willing to cut off its fossil fuel funding for the Russian war machine, or desert the Ukrainians. That decision lies in Germany.

The sinking of the Moskva, Russia’s Black Sea flagship, with the loss of an untold number of crew — an event reminiscent of the destruction of the Belgrano in the Falklands 40 years ago — is another indication that war will not end soon. It prompted a diplomatic note from Russia, a démarche, to the US warning it not to send more arms to Ukraine or face “unpredictable consequences”. 

US president Joe Biden this weekend authorised an additional $800m of support including helicopters, aerial and marine drones, long-range howitzers, and anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles.

In London’s Trafalgar Square on Good Friday there was a reconstruction of a crucifixion with a shouting crowd, a brutal centurion, the sound of the hammering of nails and cries of death. Cardinal Vincent Nichols, president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of England and Wales, said: “The images from Ukraine are no pageant.

They show us the stark reality of evil at work in power and ruthlessness, targeting the weak and the innocent in acts which cry to heaven for justice.”

Those cries are about to become louder.