One of the most dangerous stops along this highway to possible oblivion is playing out right now on Russia’s doorstep. For the average consumer of Western media junk food, the simmering standoff between Ukraine and Russia has been reduced to snack-size bites, popularly sold to unsuspecting consumers as ‘Russian aggression’.

Toss away the greasy bag, however, and the more discerning shopper will discover that Moscow has in fact steadfastly supported the conditions for peace in Donbass, where a civil war has been raging for seven years between pro-Russian forces and Kiev. Meanwhile, it is Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky who has abandoned the Minsk Protocol, the 2014 peace treaty, while signing a decree on March 24 that practically places Ukraine on a war footing with Russia.

The current battle is not over geographical conquest, but rather for access to Europe’s lucrative energy sector. Washington refuses to sit by idly as Moscow and Berlin put the final touches on the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, which, if fulfilled, will see natural gas supplies flowing from Russia to Germany – without the highly unpredictable Ukrainian middleman – across the Baltic Sea.

Not only would Nord Stream 2 preclude the necessity of expensive US liquefied natural gas (LNG) from being imported by the EU, it would turn Brussels and Moscow into Washington’s worst nightmare, that is, bona-fide partners with a real incentive to remain on good terms. Such a geopolitical turn of events has all the potential to eventually render NATO obsolete. Thus, we find Zelensky doing the dirty and extremely dangerous work of Washington, militarizing the Donbass while making aggressive overtures to Moscow.