According to military expert Carlo Masala, the Russian leadership is increasingly trying to portray the war in Ukraine as part of a global conflict with the West. Masala says in the stern podcast "Ukraine – the situation" that President Vladimir Putin presents himself as a "pioneer of an anti-colonial movement". "It's a conflict on two levels," explains the politics professor at the Bundeswehr University in Munich. On the one hand it is about Ukraine, but the conflict has "the potential to become the culmination and turning point" of a larger struggle - namely between the USA and the West on the one hand and China and Russia on the other. "The ultimate goal is, of course, to change the structure of the international system," says Masala.
With his renewed allegations against the West's alleged striving for dominance, Putin is aiming at the states of the South, whose support he wants to gain. It helps him that the West made mistakes. "We've worked very hard with double standards over the past few decades," says Masala. He cites the 2003 Iraq war as an example. The attempt "to spread liberal ideas worldwide, even by force, has meant that we are dealing with counter-reactions". Many states would wait and see how the dispute develops instead of taking sides.
Masala makes it clear once again that despite all the dangers, he doesn't expect the Ukraine war to get completely out of control. "There are approaches to communication," he says, referring to the talks between the defense ministers of Russia and the United States. They are designed to "not immediately get into a complete escalation" in the event of possible misjudgments.
However, Masala sees the risk that the USA and Russia will come even closer to a direct confrontation than before. American satellites that deliver data to the Ukrainians could be attacked. "These are legitimate targets based on Russian logic," he says of the relevant threats from the Moscow leadership. "They definitely have a meaning in terms of enlightenment." The Russians could also target US billionaire Elon Musk's Starlink system, which is used to provide Internet access in Ukraine. "I think it's entirely possible that the Starlink system will be the target of attacks," says Masala. However, he would expect that Starlink would not be attacked physically, but rather that the Russians would attempt to hack it out.
