
The EU and NATO—and their efforts to support Ukraine—would immediately feel the effects.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has significant economic, geopolitical, and social implications that reach African countries, too. Without swift action to shore up African economies, debt defaults, hunger, and instability could ensue.

Policymakers should increase their support for Ukraine and reassess the nature of this war. Putin may be consolidating a totalitarian regime that will try to subjugate as many peoples in its neighborhood as possible.

It has immersed itself in an anti-utopian delusion.
Once atrocities begin, sanctions, tough rhetoric or political isolation will not work. If the international community wants to stop mass killings, use of force is the only effective action.
The last time Russian forces tried to topple an internationally recognized government it was in a country far from Eastern Europe and on a far smaller scale than today’s war in Ukraine.
For the moment, the regime has Russian public opinion on its side, and it may continue to delude itself, just as it is deluding the people, that it can turn Russia into a self-sufficient, self-isolating, expansionist rogue state, based on the idea of Russian superiority over other nations.
A prolonged state of war in Ukraine is Ankara’s biggest nightmare and unfortunately, an increasing likelihood. Turkish Presidential spokesperson Ibrahim Kalin recently made the latter point by stating that the war in Ukraine is deepening and we are at the beginning of a new cold war that will have long lasting implications.
Our research suggests that in a free and fair referendum held throughout the Donbas — under international supervision and with impartial, transparent and inclusive voting rules that allowed those displaced since 2014 to vote — the majority would be likely to vote to remain in Ukraine.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine calls for more caution, not less.