{"id":820320,"date":"2022-09-30T15:05:04","date_gmt":"2022-09-30T15:05:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thecanary.co\/?p=1623357"},"modified":"2022-09-30T15:05:04","modified_gmt":"2022-09-30T15:05:04","slug":"nuclear-war-or-a-new-front-line-what-the-ukraine-annexations-could-mean","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2022\/09\/30\/nuclear-war-or-a-new-front-line-what-the-ukraine-annexations-could-mean\/","title":{"rendered":"Nuclear war or a new front line: what the Ukraine annexations could mean"},"content":{"rendered":"<div data-beyondwords-player=\"true\" contenteditable=\"false\"><\/div><p>Russian president Vladimir Putin is set <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2022\/sep\/30\/putin-russia-war-annexes-ukraine-regions\"  rel=\"noopener\">to annex large areas of Ukraine<\/a>. But, US president Joe Biden says the US will never recognise such territories as Russian. The eventual outcomes are unclear but an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/asia\/south-asia\/pakistan-india-nuclear-war-conflict-b2145843.html\"  rel=\"noopener\">India-Pakistan style nuclear stand-off<\/a> is a possibility.<\/p>\n<p>The<em> Guardian<\/em> surmised that the areas Putin plans to annex make up 15% of Ukraine. The paper claims that the Russian constitution means they could never be returned once claimed:<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"jS6pl5qe6hDAtMvQaUylAkygYpEf4i2VmP1XRnVdWFrNYWxwzBjKQR8osuMv0T9EIDwNPk3To\"><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Useful <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/guardian?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@guardian<\/a> map showing how much of the territory Putin is \u201cannexing\u201d isn\u2019t even under Russian control. The total territory is about 15% of Ukraine and includes major cities. Under Russia\u2019s amended constitution, no Kremlin leader can cede territories once they are annexed. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/HVgTGP1QFC\">pic.twitter.com\/HVgTGP1QFC<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Andrew Roth (@Andrew__Roth) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Andrew__Roth\/status\/1575755517703561216?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">September 30, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The <em>BBC<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/world-europe-63084286?xtor=AL-72-%5Bpartner%5D-%5Bbbc.news.twitter%5D-%5Bheadline%5D-%5Bnews%5D-%5Bbizdev%5D-%5Bisapi%5D&amp;at_medium=custom7&amp;at_campaign=64&amp;at_custom2=twitter&amp;at_custom3=%40BBCWorld&amp;at_custom4=6D5A9D0C-405F-11ED-9271-2F964744363C&amp;at_custom1=%5Bpost+type%5D\">reported<\/a> the Kremlin&#8217;s claims that<span style=\"font-size: inherit;\"> Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson had &#8220;backed annexation in five-day referendums&#8221;. But that t<\/span><span style=\"font-size: inherit;\">he &#8220;so-called votes&#8221; have been &#8220;widely condemned outside Russia as a sham&#8221;.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/world-europe-63084286?xtor=AL-72-%5Bpartner%5D-%5Bbbc.news.twitter%5D-%5Bheadline%5D-%5Bnews%5D-%5Bbizdev%5D-%5Bisapi%5D&amp;at_medium=custom7&amp;at_campaign=64&amp;at_custom2=twitter&amp;at_custom3=%40BBCWorld&amp;at_custom4=6D5A9D0C-405F-11ED-9271-2F964744363C&amp;at_custom1=%5Bpost+type%5D\">The <em>BBC<\/em> said<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>None of the four occupied regions that Russia aims to incorporate are under its full control. It can only lay claim to 60% of Donetsk while Zaporizhzhia&#8217;s regional capital remains in Ukrainian hands.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h2>Russian ambitions<\/h2>\n<p>Speaking on Friday, Joe Biden told reporters that the annexation would <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/biden-says-us-will-never-recognize-russia-claims-ukraine-2022-09-29\/\">never be recognised<\/a> by the US:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The United States, I want to be very clear about this, United States will never, never, never recognize Russia&#8217;s claims on Ukraine sovereign territory.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>He <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/biden-says-us-will-never-recognize-russia-claims-ukraine-2022-09-29\/\">announced new sanctions<\/a> and blasted what he called Russia&#8217;s &#8220;imperial ambitions&#8221;:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Russia&#8217;s assault on Ukraine in pursuit of imperial ambitions is a flagrant, flagrant violation of the UN Charter, and the basic principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Strong words, though it is worth remembering US intervention in Iraq and Afghanistan to mention just two. A third could be the US&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/57170576\">longstanding bankrolling of Israel<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2>Standoff<\/h2>\n<p>It is hard to predict how the annexation matter will play out. Both Russia and Ukraine&#8217;s biggest ally, the US, is a nuclear power. Yet, excepting a disastrous error, it seems unlikely either will pull the trigger. More likely, the continuation of a high-intensity war, or even ongoing proxy war in the annexed regions.<\/p>\n<p>Whichever way the war plays out, those of us with a genuine interest in peace are not served by backing either the US or Russia in the form of bizarre modern-day campism (uncritical backing of either the US or Russia) which has played out since March.<\/p>\n<p><em>Featured image <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:NLAW_AFU_1.jpg\">via Wikimedia Commons\/General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, cropped to 770 x 403, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p>By <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thecanary.co\/author\/joeglenton\/\">Joe Glenton<\/a><\/p>\n\n<p class=\"syndicated-attribution\">This post was originally published on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecanary.co\/global\/world-analysis\/2022\/09\/30\/nuclear-war-or-a-new-front-line-what-the-ukraine-annexations-could-mean\/\">The Canary<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Russian president Vladimir Putin is set to annex large areas of Ukraine. But, US president Joe Biden says the US will never recognise such \u2026 <\/p>\n<div class=\"read-more-wrap\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecanary.co\/global\/world-analysis\/2022\/09\/30\/nuclear-war-or-a-new-front-line-what-the-ukraine-annexations-could-mean\/\" class=\"more-link\">Read more<\/a><\/div>\n<p>By <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thecanary.co\/author\/joeglenton\/\">Joe Glenton<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1547,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441,283,1778,365,1864,24,376,1227,204],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/820320"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1547"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=820320"}],"version-history":[{"count":153,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/820320\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":848550,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/820320\/revisions\/848550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=820320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=820320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=820320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}