With Russia controlling Ukraine’s nuclear power and Western men and materiel pouring in, the world is on the brink of WWIII

(Originally published March 7 in “What in the World“) Russian forces have taken control of Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia, and cut off its cellular and internet links to the outside. This after shelling it and starting a fire that raised fears an outage of the plant’s cooling or power supplies could trigger a meltdown and a potential nuclear accident. The International Atomic Energy Agency has protested Russia’s takeover of the plant, which contravenes agreements to allow nuclear power plant staff unimpeded control and to keep communications open.

The West is moving rapidly into a Cold War-style proxy war against Russia in Ukraine, whether because of Putin’s veiled nuclear threats or in spite of them. Western news outlets and social media are serving up a drumbeat of outrage over the invasion, with footage of ceasefire violations and attacks against civilians and refugees. Most U.S. lawmakers still oppose Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s call for a no-flight zone, which Russian President Vladimir Putin has correctly said would represent active entry into the war (though he still doesn’t call it a war). Zelensky meanwhile says 16,000 foreign fighters (including American vets) have joined his international legion to defend Ukraine; Russia is now reportedly recruited fighters from Syria experienced in urban warfare to help topple Ukraine’s cities.

The prospect of Muslim warriors fighting to conquer European cities is likely to infuriate Western conservatives, sparking calls for a new Crusade. Indeed, some in social media have noted a double standard in Western coverage of Ukraine that is racial in nature: Ukrainians are largely white; the same support, they complain, didn’t accompany aggression against non-white populations in the Middle East and Africa or their subsequent waves of refugees. Westerners who responded to their sense of outrage to fight alongside Muslim extremists in Syria were often prosecuted; now American and other Western mercenaries are rushing into Ukraine, providing Putin with all the eventual POWs and dead infiltrators he needs to feed whatever PR campaign feeds his narrative of Western persecution of Russia.

The United States and its Western allies are already pouring weapons into Ukraine to thwart the Russian invasion. Now Washington is considering replacing any combat aircraft that NATO member Poland send to Ukraine.

Those familiar with Cold War history will recall that using proxies to fight over third countries was largely how China, Russia and the U.S. fought during the Cold War yo avoid the kind of direct conflict that might lead to nuclear Armageddon. Such proxy battles eventually spilled over into direct conflict and then stalemate in Korea (where North Korea on Saturday launched yet another missile into the Sea of Japan) and direct U.S. involvement and defeat against Communists in Vietnam. But they smoldered on for years in Afghanistan, Algeria, Angola, Bolivia, Cambodia, Chad, the Congo, East Timor, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Laos, Libya, Malaysia, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Oman, South Africa, Sudan, Thailand, Tibet, the Western Sahara, and Yemen, just to name a few.

The question, then, is whether Putin will finally use Western aid to Ukraine as pretext for expanding the conflict westward or whether Ukraine will (thanks in part to Western aid) become his Vietnam/Afghanistan. Some believe he is likely to keep pressing on to “liberate” Russian separatists in Moldova’s Transnistria region, which would still fall short of direct attack against a NATO member.