With violence increasing in Ukraine, the potential for that conflict to plunge into a wider war is growing quickly. Ukraine first saw extended protests in the capital Kiev that ended with the departure of pro-Russian President Victor Yankovych. The protestors initially demanded that President Yankovych step down from office and hold new elections. However, after several months the protests turned violent, police responded with force and when several protestors were killed, Yankovych fled the country in February. What gave the protests deeper implications was that President Yankovych was about to sign a long-term financing agreement between Russia and Ukraine instead of opting for a loan scheme offered by the European Union (EU). Many people, particularly in Russia, felt the protests were engineered by the US and EU in a bid to remove a leader hostile to their interests from power. There was a subsequent backlash to the Kiev protests in Yankovych’s political stronghold, the largely Russian-speaking eastern half of Ukraine. Soon after his departure, with the government in Kiev still trying to assert its authority over the city, Russian troops mobilised in Ukraine’s strategically vital Crimean peninsula claiming the defence of Russian-speaking people there, annexing that territory after a referendum. Many countries condemned the annexation. Tellingly, many other countries remained silent. The Ukrainian military began an operation against protestors and militiamen in the Ukrainian cities of Slovyansk and Odessa last week. On Friday, May 2, 2014, 41 civilians were killed in Slovyansk and 123 more were injured when pro-Kiev forces set fire to a building being held by pro-Russia protestors, killing most of the people inside. Armed protestors shot down two Ukrainian military helicopters leading to accusations from western governments that the protestors are being directed and armed by Russia. On Monday, May 5, 14 people were killed including four of Kiev’s soldiers. Russia called an emergency UN Security Council (UNSC) meeting after the incident to protest the actions of what it says are ‘fascist’ groups within the new Ukrainian government. The situation appears to be heading for a civil war, with hundreds of Ukrainian troops defecting to join protestors and separatist militias, while Russian troops remain poised on the Ukrainian border. These events are part of a revitalised rivalry between Russia and the US that has emerged in the wake of NATO’s mission creep into Eastern Europe and former Soviet Republics on Russia’s periphery. Russia’s resurgence under President Vladimir Putin has given it greater confidence on the world stage, including reserving the right to intervene in the ‘near abroad’ where Russian-speaking minorities are under threat. However, Russia’s latest actions are better seen in the light of increasing — and increasingly disastrous — military interventions by US and NATO forces without UN approval, particularly in Kosovo and Iraq, which undermined international law by showing how powerful countries can ride roughshod over other sovereign countries if they choose to. Moreover, by supporting protestors who included some unsavoury elements trying to oust an elected president, the west set a dangerous precedent that provoked an equally dangerous response from Russia. The west cannot afford to think of Russia as a minor power; if not a superpower it is still a global power and President Putin felt emboldened enough by precedents set over the last few years to annex part of another country. Meanwhile, in Ukraine people are dying and the conflict could lead to direct confrontation between NATO and Russia with disastrous consequences for the whole world. The Geneva agreement to preserve Ukraine’s territorial integrity signed between western countries and Russia just last month fell apart within days because of the Kiev government’s provocative actions in eastern Ukraine. This is a very dangerous development for world peace. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has offered his personal mediation. He should exercise his influence on all parties to return them to the Geneva agreement, which should remain the blueprint to defuse this conflict before events in Ukraine spiral out of control.*