THE MOTHER OF ALL DAMS

If someone thought that we had witnessed the peak of vicious intent in Ukraine, the latest developments might very well represent yet another escalation in the horror which is reinventing itself:  for Russia to inflict, for Ukrainians to suffer and for the world to endure.

From the start, Putin avoided using the terms "war" and "invasion."  Under the cover of his "special operation" he stepped right into the frenzy of razing everything that made Russia still bearable, albeit with question marks. 

Unleashing the floods now and creating another escalation in his preferred dysfunctional methodology, he keeps reinventing the degrees of hybrid warfare. 

The Ukrainian David continues to resist and to stand firm.

Conflicts tend to follow, generally, a predictable pattern, ending in some form of unequal fatigue. This current conflict is more the project of a madman than a deliberate goal-centered enterprise. The Russian Goliath looks like a pathetic obese beast that is no longer able to control its path.

Given that the war crimes pile up it is unlikely that the usual, often well meaning peace makers will appear. The witch's brew has become too toxic to approach it. Zelensky will receive even more support than he does now. The times for restraint regarding the use of armament by Ukraine are over. Putin's grotesque staging in the cavernous Kremlin has already become another silly Pavlovian failed scenario, made for a Chaplin sequel.

Europeans should be made even more conscious of the monster they harbor on their eastern flank. There are still cynical and envious pariahs left who are too happy to coalesce with the false allure of the Russia/China axis. The romance between these two pushovers is a calculated move neither of them enjoys. The pack of unreliable lackeys who show up to cash a check, are yet another form of Narco-politics a la Russe.

The Kakhovka dam bust might well be Putin's Waterloo, the difference being that if one battle was gallant, the present horror of the Russian onslaught is too outrageous to pass scrutiny.