The potential for a World War 3 is almost always present, but former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev has warned that the current situation in Ukraine could spark it sooner rather than later.
Russia and most European countries are facing off over Ukraine, with tensions growing steadily.
The situation is one that the 1990 Nobel Peace Prize winner sees as potentially devolving into war, which could spark something even worse.
“A war of this kind would unavoidably lead to a nuclear war,” Gorbachev, 83, told Der Spiegel magazine.
“We won’t survive the coming years if someone loses their nerve in this overheated situation,. This is not something I’m saying thoughtlessly. I am extremely concerned.”
The situation started last year after pro-Russian separatists, widely believed to be supported by Russian President Vladimir Putin, took over parts of eastern Ukraine, while Russia annexed Crimea.
Gorbachev played a key role in opening the Berlin Wall, which led to Germany’s reunification, and also helped restructure policy that helped end the Cold War. He has been warning about a potential new Cold Way, if tensions aren’t reduced over the Ukraine crisis.
But it appears that tensions just keep increasing, with Putin just before the New Year shifting his country’s military doctrine to a more aggressive stance toward NATO.
“Global developments at present stage are characterized by an increasing global competition, tensions in various interstate and interregional areas,” said the document, signed by Putin on Dec. 26, reported Defense News.
“There are many regional conflicts which remain unresolved. There is a tendency to force their resolution, including those which are in the regions bordering the Russian Federation. The existing architecture of the international security system does not provide an equal level of security to all states.”
