“Seek Yahweh while He may be found. Call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return to Yahweh, and He will have compassion on him. Turn to our Elohim, for He will abundantly pardon.”
Isaiah 55: 6-7
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Is the Ukraine Invasion the Opening Salvo for World War III? No.
For weeks, Vladimir Putin was positioning Russian troops and military hardware around Ukraine. Many countries have satellite technology. Leaders in those countries watched him do it in real time. Joe Biden and European leaders publicly challenged Putin and warned him not to invade Ukraine. Repeatedly, Putin said that that was not his intention.
It was an obvious lie. A few days ago, Putin finally invaded Ukraine, and his lie was exposed for the world to see.
While Putin was positioning his forces on the Ukraine border, the United States and Europe imposed sanctions on Russia, Russian firms, and Russian leaders. When the fighting started, more sanctions were added including banning Russia from the SWIFT system that every country uses to engage in global trade. That means Russia and the Russian people will suffer greatly. They will feel the pain for Putin’s actions soon enough.
As quickly as the fighting started, thousands of Russians protested. All over the country, they were saying things about Putin publicly that Russians typically don’t say. Some of them were arrested. You can bet that there will be more protests when the Russian people feel the effects of those sanctions, especially the SWIFT ban. Those protests should intensify dramatically when that happens.
What is Putin trying to accomplish?
Russia already controls about 11% of Earth’s land area, but it has less than 2% of Earth’s population. Russia doesn’t need more land. Putin’s Ukraine invasion is about sending a message, and this is his message: “Putin matters.”
Vladimir Putin is a megalomaniac and an egomaniac with an inferiority complex. That makes him dangerous. He is desperate for attention, and he thinks the world is denying it to him. Right now, the Ukrainian people are paying the price for Putin’s madness, but the Russian people will quickly follow.
Putin tried to gain the notoriety and prestige he thinks he deserves in Syria, but it didn’t work out. The United States and Israel hit targets in Syria with impunity while Russian forces were there, and Putin couldn’t do anything about it except talk.
In geopolitics, talk is cheap. Putin knows that as well as anyone, so he decided to send a stronger message closer to home. That’s what Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is all about.
Ukrainians and Russian soldiers are dying, and the Russian people are beginning to suffer. For what? So Vladimir Putin can feel good about himself.
That’s something world leaders and the Russian people won’t tolerate.
To get attention, Putin is willing to let his country suffer. He’s willing to let his close comrades suffer, too. Ordinary Russian citizens will suffer most, though. Putin’s invasion of Ukraine sends a clear message to every Russian that they don’t matter. Putin is the only person who matters to Putin.
The outcry in Russia will grow louder in the days ahead. When Russian citizens can’t buy basic necessities, the protests are likely to become violent. Putin should know that, but he continues to press the Ukraine invasion anyway. He is willing to let the Russian people pay a very high price and suffer needlessly to get the attention he longs for.
Two days ago, Putin put his military on nuclear high alert. That was over the top. Leaders in Belarus said that Western leaders were pushing Putin toward World War III, a nuclear war. That’s absurd. Nobody is pushing Putin except Putin. He’s pushing himself into a corner from which he can’t escape and save face. It’s a no-win situation, but Putin doesn’t see it. He’s blinded by his lust for attention on the world stage.
To the rest of the world, Putin looks like an undisciplined brat or a typical schoolyard bully. Most people want nothing to do with him, and Western leaders are showing him that they don’t intend to give him one inch.
If Putin continues to press the invasion of Ukraine, Western leaders will become even more determined to prevent him from succeeding. That’s the lesson they learned from Hitler in World War II. They shouldn’t have given Hitler one inch, but they tried to appease him. The result was the bloodiest war in the history of the world.
Is the Ukraine Invasion the Opening Salvo for World War III?
Could the Ukraine invasion lead to World War III? It’s possible, but if it happens, it will be the world against Russia. And it won’t be a strong Russia.
The Russian people will be Putin’s most formidable enemy. He will have a civil war on his hands at home while he tries to take on the rest of the world. That’s a no-win situation for sure.
Vladimir Putin is losing his grip on reality. Every move he has made in Ukraine supports that conclusion. At some point, Russia’s military leaders should understand it and take matters into their own hands. They may kill him, or they might just depose him. If Russia’s military leaders don’t do it, the Russian people will. In either case, Putin is the loser.
Ukraine is the beginning of the end for Putin. He won’t be Russia’s president much longer. Anything he thinks he is gaining by invading Ukraine is actually a loss, because the invasion is sealing his fate. When the Ukraine invasion is over, Putin will be dead politically and possibly dead literally.
Vladimir Putin is like a leper in Bible days. For good reasons, Western leaders don’t want to get near him, and things are about to get a lot worse for Putin at home and abroad.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and the ayatollahs in Tehran are the only people I’m aware of who will give Putin the time of day. It must anger, frustrate, and embarrass Chinese leaders when Putin comes begging. They can’t solve his problem, because it’s mental. Even so, thanks to proximity, Putin’s actions may hurt them. In a few days, they may refuse to take his calls.
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“I am the good shepherd. I know My sheep and My sheep know Me — just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father — and I lay down My life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also. They too will listen to My voice, and there shall be one flock and one Shepherd. The reason My Father loves Me is that I lay down My life — only to take it up again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of My own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from My Father.”
John 10: 14-18
