Ukraine and the Orcs

Are the Ukrainians sure they want to push a nuclear-armed enemy, who has shown himself to be irrational and unstable, into such a humiliating corner? Are they sure their Western supporters would still back them if that leads to a nuclear showdown?

President Vladimir Putin's Russia is not Mordor, writes Gwynne Dyer. It is a second-rate great power that must be respected because it has a lot of nuclear weapons, but it poses no serious threat to the security of the rest of Europe or to democracy.Photograph courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Opinion

BY GWYNNE DYER

May 5, 2022

LONDON, U.K.—My wife and I were talking recently about how clever the Ukrainians had been to call the invading Russian troops "Orcs" even before all the atrocities in the Russian-occupied towns around Kyiv came to light. Then Tina said: “If Putin’s troops are Orcs, then he must be Sauron.” ...

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