Welcome to the Daily Article Podcast. I'm Chris Elkins with the Denison Forum, narrating today's

article by Dr. Jim Denison. President Vladimir Putin of Russia recognized the independence of two

separatist regions in eastern Ukraine yesterday.

In his speech, he claimed that Ukraine has never had traditions of its own statehood,

calling the eastern part of the country ancient Russian lands.

He then ordered the Russian army to launch what Moscow is calling a peacekeeping operation in the area. The BBC reports this morning that footage overnight appears to show Russian military vehicles

heading towards the Ukrainian border. The United Nations Security Council held an emergency meeting

last night, during which Western countries condemned

Russia's actions as a break with international law and an implicit attack against the territorial

integrity of every UN member state. Leaders from France, the European Union, the European Commission, the United Nations,

NATO, and Lithuania condemned Russia's move. U.S. President Joe Biden signed an executive order

to halt U.S. business activity in the breakaway regions. European Union members are meeting today to decide

what sanctions to impose. I have found two articles on the escalating crisis in Ukraine to be

especially informative. In the first, the New York Times columnist David Leonard writes,

A Russian invasion of Ukraine would look like the kind of war that has been largely absent

in the past 80 years and that was once common.

It would involve a powerful nation sitting out to expand its regional dominance by taking

over its neighbor.

He added that such a voluntary war of aggression would signal

that Putin believes that the U.S., the European Union, and their allies have become too weak to exact

painful consequences in response. Like Russia, the leaders of China, Iran, and Venezuela are also autocrats. They are watching the Western

response to Russia, according to Leonard. If the world is entering an era in which countries

...