On the territory of Ukraine, there is a war for the Soviet inheritance, for the imperial legacy of the Soviet Union, for the status of the Soviet empire, which is claimed by its successor, the Russian Federation.

This war was started by Vladimir Putin.  The name Vladimir means "he who owns the world." 

The president of Russia acted as the ruler of the world.  He announced that he began the fight for the "security of Russia." 

But the "security of Russia" is similar to the insecurity of Europe, and possibly the world, since threats to use atomic weapons mean the first step toward World War III.

The "Iron Curtain" has come down again.  The Western world has already taken the first step toward World War III, since it is militarily inactive, just as England and France were inactive in 1938.  The history of the twentieth century shows that war can be brought closer not only by military action, but also by military passivity.

Nuclear, economic, and cyber-weapons, which are a great threat in the twenty-first century, cannot affect the twentieth-century historical lesson of the hopelessness of fighting aggressors by nonmilitary means.

In the era of globalization, the territory of Europe cannot be divided into an area under NATO control and an area over which NATO has no "jurisdiction."  Such a division would be justified if all parties to the conflict played by the rules.

The Russian side is playing by its own rules, which it created in accordance with "Russian security" interests.  These rules include the requirement to restore the borders of NATO during the existence of the USSR.  Those rules do not include recognizing the sovereignty of other countries.

In the speech in which Putin announced the start of military action, he actually declared his right to grant Ukrainians the "right" to submit to Russia.  This statement reflects the attitude toward Ukrainians that prevailed in the Russian tsarist empire and represented them as "Malorosses," which translated means "Little Russians." 

Accordingly, Ukraine is Malorossia — that is, "Little Russia."  Since Ukraine is "Little Russia," "Big Russian Brother," in George Orwell's terminology, has the right to decide how it should be governed.

The West opposes this claim by Putin to the right to shape the governance of Ukraine according to his desire to ensure "Russia's security," but apparently, the West has not reread Winston Churchill's statement: "Most of all Russians admire strength, and there is nothing for which they have less respect than military weakness."

On March 5, 1946, at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, in the United States, British prime minister Winston Churchill said: "The mere fear of the atomic bomb would be enough to enable them to impose one of their totalitarian systems on a free, democratic world, and the consequences would be simply monstrous."  This fear of the atomic bomb in the hands of Russia holds the West even today.

The consequences of the imposition of a new totalitarian system on the West, no longer by Soviet Russia, are still "monstrous."

The war in Ukraine is only a way of self-asserting Russia's autocracy.  Ukraine is the testing ground for the weapons of the new Russian empire's struggle for its dominance in the world.

Alex Gordon is a native of Kiev (Soviet Ukraine, USSR) and graduate of the Kiev State University and Haifa Technion (Doctor of Science, 1984).  Immigrated to Israel in 1979.  Served in IDF reserve infantry units for 13 years.  Full Professor (Emeritus) of Physics in the Faculty of Natural Sciences at the University of Haifa and at Oranim, the Academic College of Education. Author of 8 books and about 500 articles in paper and online, was published in 77 journals in 14 countries in Russian, Hebrew, English, French and German. Literary publications in English: Jewish Literary Journal (USA), Jewish Fiction (Canada), Mosaic (USA), American Thinker (USA), San Diego Jewish World (USA), Jewish Women of Words (Australia), Arc (Israel); publications in German: Jüdische Zeitung (Berlin) and Jüdische Rundschau (Berlin); publications in Hebrew: Haaretz, Iton 77, Yekum Tarbut, Kav Natui and Ruah Oranim (Israel), publications in French: Alliance (Paris).

Image: Pixabay, Pixabay License.