Nearly a month after American President Joe Biden’s surprise, an unprecedented visit to Kiev, where he rattled Russia with unequivocal support to Ukraine, Putin hits back.

President Biden on an announced visit to Poland that Russia was already fuming over, also reached Kiev to embrace Ukrainian President Zelensky and promise 3 Billion Dollars of military support, in a move being called the first visit of a US President to a warzone in the last 20 years.

The Russians claim that US Secret Service took their permission beforehand. But the visit was seen as a direct challenge to Russia at its doorstep by an American President.

Coming as it did, only days after the Nord Stream pipeline explosions by American Navy and Norway intelligence agencies was in theory exposed by one of America’s revered journalists Seymour Hersh, Biden’s visit was hailed as a signal that he will support Ukraine by all means.

Russia responded with the suspension of the 2010 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) on Nuclear weapons with the US. It renewed missile attacks to cripple power plants along with an all-out attack on Bakhmut in the critical Donbas region of Ukraine which can fall any day under the Wagner Army. None of the hypersonic Khinzal missiles launched by Russia could be shot down by Ukrainian or NATO/US-supplied Air Defence systems.

Not only is Biden’s visit to Ukraine being heavily criticized in Germany, which lost assured cheap Russian CNG because of Nordstream blasts, but also in America, especially by Republicans and supporters of President Donald Trump. In this vacuum, China has also stepped in with a 12-point Ceasefire plan that led to America threatening China and shooting down Surveillance Balloons. In this chaos, only India hosting a critical G-20 summit emerged as a Sutradhar that could resolve the crisis. Both the Western nations and Russia-China appreciated the key role of India in global peace during the G-20 summit in Delhi. The diplomacy of Prime Minister Modi and the Foreign Minister was highly praised by all delegates.

American MQ-9 Predator crashed by Sukhoi Su-27

But from yesterday, American- Russian war threat has increased with the shocking combat downing of an MQ-9 Predator UAV by Russian Sukhoi-27. The US claims it was rammed by a Russian pilot over the Black Sea near Crimea. The MQ-9 Predator is famous for its targeted killings in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Iran. Sources reveal that for many months the MQ-9 predator was doing surveillance on the Black Sea to monitor and report Russian Navy operations.

In a shocking twist, the Russian Sukhoi-27 fighter either dumped excess fuel or collided with MQ-9 causing it to crash into the Sea. US released video footage claiming the SU-27 collided with UAV. But Russia denied the claims with its own video and warned the US not to invade its Airspace. This crash of an unmanned UAV can turn into a major escalation between Americans and Russia’s Putin leading to the deaths of Lakhs of men and World War III.

Will India and its renowned Prime Minister step in to restore Peace?

-Col. Ashish Khanna