"Russian Bear" with a big red bright button: shadow-boxing with nuclear weapons

Shafaq News/ Weeks before the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, jolted the world by tauntingly tapping on the red button, the United States, Britain, and other NATO allies began shadow-boxing with Russia to signal they are prepared to go all-out should the Ukrainian conflict escalate and spill into Europe. However, what seemed like the brinksmanship mentality the world has not seen since the Cold War did not materialize into actual friction with Russia.

In fact, the entire focus of the West was centered on mobilizing media impetus behind the Ukrainian "resistance" and lashing a barrage of economic sanctions that they only hope it might hurt Moscow's economy.

"Nobody wants to fight with Russia"

Russia, home to the world's largest stockpile of nuclear warheads, is not shy about using them; such appears to be the message coming from the Kremlin as it grapples with mounting condemnation of its war in Ukraine and unexpectedly stiff resistance on the ground.

While Putin's cryptic dialect has puzzled analysts, all agree that the Russian leader's menacing words had at least one clear intention: to up the pressure on opponents in the West.

In return, the West responded by spending nothing more than merely diplomatic capital on countering the Russian aggression towards Ukraine.

The US, UK, and NATO had relentlessly broadcast doomsday warnings about an impending invasion, which proved to be correct, and declared that no less than the international order was at stake. But as matters turned serious, they made it clear that they are not willing to fight, even though the Russians clearly are.

"We did not declare war on Russia. I don't think any European state or the US wants to fight with Russia," France's Defense Minister Florence Parly said, "Our goal is to achieve a ceasefire."

US President Joe Biden reluctantly admitted that the notion of sanctioning Putin personally is nothing more than a possibility with the Russian military operations in Ukraine heading toward the end of its first week. He repeatedly evaded replying to questions about why such personal sanctions targeting Putin were not included in the coordinated set of sanctions it imposed on Russia.

Lunatic in US, War Criminal in Europe

The cryptic language used by the Kremlin has made it difficult to assess the extent to which Putin has altered the nuclear equation. Strangely, US media cited sources from inside the US intelligence community that evaluating the Russian President's state of mind has become a top priority in recent days to establish how that is affecting his handling of the rapidly escalating Ukraine crisis.

"The struggle for peace and freedom of the Russian and Ukrainian peoples demands our commitment: we will not rest until Putin is tried as a war criminal by the International Criminal Court," the leader of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats parliamentary group, Iratxe Garcia, said.

No-fly zone= WWIII?

As Moscow's forces shell the country's major cities and Western nations ponder more sanctions, Putin has laid out conditions for ending his invasion of Ukraine.

Putin's ultimatum came as Moscow and Kyiv held their first talks since the outbreak of the war, which shocked the world and provoked a massive diplomatic, economic, and cultural backlash.

"Putin [in a phone call with French President, Emmanuel Macron] stressed that a settlement is possible only if Russia's legitimate security interests are unconditionally taken into account, including the recognition of Russian sovereignty over Crimea, the demilitarisation ,and denazification of the Ukrainian state and ensuring its neutral status," the Kremlin said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly urged members of the NATO alliance to

"close the skies." This appears to be a request for a "no-fly zone" ; deploying NATO and US aircraft to Ukrainian airspace in order to block Russia from using its air force in support of the invasion.

Zelensky says a no-fly zone, which would designate certain areas of Ukraine as off-limits to Russian military aircraft and deploy force to keep them out, would help Ukraine defeat Russia “with much less blood” than if Ukrainian forces were left to fight without support from the US or NATO.

But imposing a no-fly zone over a country is not a magical umbrella that automatically ends violence. In fact, both the US and NATO are concerned that declaring a no-fly zone over Ukraine could actually make the situation worse, once their own military forces are called on to enforce it.

Experts say that the move could require US forces to directly engage with Russian aircraft. That escalation could possibly provoke President Putin to retaliate with more drastic, and maybe nuclear, action.

If US or NATO troops do clash with the Russian military, there is an unsettling risk that the war would spin into a nuclear conflict—especially since Putin placed Russia's nuclear forces on "high alert". Putin said he was readying his nuclear warheads for launch in response to nonspecific "aggressive statements" from NATO.

Between the knife of his conditions to end the war and the altar of a nuclear World War Three, Ukraine will continue to suffer the wrath of the "Russian Bear" with the big red bright button.