Yesterday Vladimir Putin made hard-hitting statements about striking back at countries using weapons against Russia (this shows how much things have changed since the wars start). His words point to a bigger issue: the conflict isnt just about two countries anymore
The threats arent new - back in 08 Colonel General Anatoly Nogovitsyn talked about nuking Poland; but now theres more to it. Russia got help from Iran and North-Korea which made everything more complex: while Ukraine hits military spots with western tech Russia attacks regular people with foreign-made weapons
The west-east divide is getting deeper day-by-day - Ukraine with its NATO friends on one side and Russia with China-Iran-North Korea group on the other. This setup looks a lot like pre-WW1 times when countries picked sides before everything went wrong
The nuclear plant situation is super-risky; Rafael Grossi from IAEA said few months ago that weʼre getting close to big trouble. Russia still holds the Zaporizhzhia plant (they took it right after invasion started) and if something goes wrong there it could affect other countries
Arms control is falling apart too - US left the missile treaty about 6 years ago; Russia stopped following the START thing last year. Ramzan Kadyrov keeps talking about using small nukes and other Russian big-shots are joining in. After Ukraine hit Bryansk Russia changed its nuke-use rules
The bad guys are teaming up: North-Korea shot missiles China flies near Taiwan and Iran attacked Israel recently. With US politics being shaky right now theyʼre all trying to push their luck. They work together too - like when Russia helps those Houthi guys mess with ships in the sea