The future is unwritten

“There is no chance there will be a nuclear war,” said a social media user just the other day. “It’s just media hype.” If I’d had a pound for the number of times I’ve read that comment in recent weeks, I’d have close to a tenner and I still don’t know what it means. I know what ‘media’ means and I know ‘hype’ when I see it but this is such a dismissive and arrogant attitude to something far more serious and now sinister. I’m not saying there will be a nuclear conflict, but would I trust Mad Vlad Putin not to let the odd missile go just to show he means business?

Not that Putin doesn’t mean business after his army last night attacked the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, the biggest plant of his type in Europe. Conscious of the need to avoid media hype, it’s entirely possible that the Russian attack was really aimed at shutting the facility down, but we don’t know that. Firing missiles at a nuclear facility in a Ukraine which, when it was part of the Soviet Union gave us Chernobyl, is clearly an illustration of recklessness and Putin’s determination to turn Ukraine into a desert, nuclear or not.

If that wasn’t bad enough, we learn today that President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has so far survived three assassination attempts. And we fear that when Russia has finally turned Ukraine into rubble, if Zelenskiy will at best be imprisoned or at worst murdered. My suggestion is that Zelenskiy is awarded the Nobel peace prize without delay. Symbolism, perhaps, but the signal to Putin must be clear.

Am I worried about what is happening in Ukraine? Yes, very. Do I fear that things will escalate into a nuclear conflict? Yes, but I have no way of knowing. Do I fear Putin’s war against Ukraine will crash our economy? Yes, definitely. And do I really know how this will pan out? Not a clue. How could I? Nothing is certain. Of course we are right to worry. What part of worry do we not understand?

“There is no chance there will be a nuclear war?” Well, we hope not. The future is full of ‘what ifs’. What if Putin decides to move on to NATO countries once he has destroyed Ukraine? NATO will unquestionably act and in that moment there will be direct conflict between Russia and the west. Maybe what if isn’t a good idea because ordinary folk like us can’t affect very much.

At least the west in general and Europe in particular remains united, even to the extent that foreign secretary Betty Truss is today attending a meeting of the EUI foreign affairs council meeting. Putin and his useful idiots in Britain, who campaigned successfully for Brexit, will hate this sense of unity, which is the exact opposite of what he tried to achieve by dividing Europe. Late in the day, Britain woke up to the truth: that Europe united is far less likely to be defeated and a divided Europe. I am not arguing to abandon Brexit at this time because that ship has long sailed, but in future we simply must work more closely with Europe in every way we can.

The future is unwritten, as they say, but we can still help write it.