Is Putin beginning to fall into the abyss of starting WW3?

Iryna Nazarchuk has reported that,

"British defense minister Gavin Williamson (left) visited Ukraine on Friday where he told his Ukrainian counterpart that the Black Sea did not belong to Russia and that Britain had sent a Royal Navy ship there to show Kiev did not stand alone." (Reuters : 21 Dec., 2018) (my emphasis)

Mail Online

At the same time, Jens Stoltenberg, NATO Secretary General, stated that,

"Last week, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told journalists in Brussels the North Atlantic alliance would be taking more of a “leadership” role in defending Ukraine. “We are also supporting Ukraine to improve its naval capabilities,” Stoltenberg said." (Anna Nemtsova : Daily Beast : 21 Dec., 2018) (my emphasis)

Earlier, during his four-hour press conference Thursday (20 Dec., 2018) Putin,

" .... showed no sign he’d be softening his position on the Kerch Strait or in the Sea of Azov to respect Ukrainian sovereignty. “We have a right and we will design our military policy the way we consider necessary,” he said. “If General Staff [of the Armed Forces], the border guard service, think we need to reinforce security on a certain territory, we are going to do it.” (ibid Anna Nemtsova) (my emphasis)

More disconcerting, however, at his marathon press conference last Thursday, Putin rather bluntly stated that,

" ... The danger of the situation escalating is being downplayed. It now seems to be impossible ... something not of crucial importance .. But at the same time if something like this would happen this might lead to the collapse of the entire civilization ... maybe our planet ..."

According to Russian opposition leader Dmitry Gudko (left),

“Putin’s popularity is now down to 45 percent, as low as it was before he annexed Crimea; so he needs a little victorious war again to boost his rating, or at least to keep it from fading away.” (ibid Anna Nemtsova) (my emphasis)

Would Putin start a nuclear war simply to boost his ratings?

As I wrote in my last blog entry (12/12/2018),

"Let us not forget the Moscow apartment bombings in 1999 that killed 293 innocent Russian civilians, and injured more than 1,000, and that pointed directly to Putin as the perpetrator of this massacre upon his own people. (cf. CBC : 8 January 2015, Wikipedia, David Satter ; National Review (17 Aug., 2017), Scott Anderson : GQ (March 30, 2017) )

These bombings catapulted Putin into his first term as president of Russia.

Let us now remind ourselves that,

"Moscow's persistence in claiming that Ukraine is plotting a chemical attack in the occupied Donbas raises serious concerns, says Ukrainian MP Dmytro Tymchuk, who is also a coordinator of the Information Resistance OSINT group.
...
On November 26, a statement was made by Russian ambassador to the OSCE, A. Lukashevich (left), that the Ukrainian Armed Forces "are preparing a provocation with the use of chemical weapons in Donbas."
...
[Furthermore], on December 5, at a briefing of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Zakharova (left) told the same thing, adding: “Such actions can lead to civilian casualties and contradict not only the Minsk Agreements, but also international agreements on the prohibition and restriction of weapons of mass destruction...” (UNIAN : 10 December, 2018) (my emphasis)

When viewed against Putin's recent statement about the "danger of the situation [at the Kerch Strait entrance into the Sea of Azov] escalating", we can discern a propaganda pattern that Putin is using as a prelude to legitimize a full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine.

If, however, Putin thought that the current preoccupation of the US Senate and House of Congress with the increasing problems confronting Trump's hold on the US presidency will somehow divert their attentions away from his rapidly escalating move to invade Ukraine, he has sorely miscalculated.

In a press release by Senator Ron Johnson,

"U.S. Senators Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) (left: Durbin and Johnson), and 39 of their colleagues introduced a resolution calling for a prompt multinational freedom of navigation operation in the Black Sea and the cancellation of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline in response to Russia’s recent aggressive actions in the Kerch Strait and the Sea of Azov. (my emphasis)


“The United States and our allies need to rapidly counter Russia’s military aggression in the Kerch Strait with strong and resolute action,” Sen. Johnson said. “Assembling a multinational freedom of navigation operation in the Black Sea to help ensure safe passage into the Sea of Azov, combined with cancellation of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline is exactly the kind of response Putin needs to see.” (19 December, 2018) (their emphasis) (Full text of resolution)

 
As ships of NATO, the US, and Great Britain begin to assemble in the Black Sea and, possibly, head towards the Kerch Strait entrance into the Sea of Azov and towards Ukraine's port of Mariupol, will Putin stand in their way?

Should we take him at his word when he said that,

"... The danger of the situation escalating is being downplayed. It now seems to be impossible ... something not of crucial importance .. But at the same time if something like this would happen this might lead to the collapse of the entire civilization ... maybe our planet ..."?

 

Is Putin beginning to fall into the abyss of starting WW3?

(to be continued)