Winter is coming… Yes, winter is coming. The winter that changed the course of all the wars in Europe was coming. Snowfall in Europe, especially on Russian soil, played a vital role behind the first obstacle and the defeat of Adolf Hitler’s Germany, which developed with the power to conquer the whole world during the Second World War. Snowfall as low as minus 40 degrees and the plains turned to slush helped Russia defeat the German military campaign ‘Operation Barbarossa’ against them in the Second World War and destroyed a large part of the army. World War II history was rewritten as rushing German military vehicles became bogged down in blood and snow and became stuck in the barren Russian plains and suburbs. Could this winter also determine the future of the Russia-Ukraine war, the biggest war Europe has seen since World War II? Will Russia surrender to the Ukraine this winter the name and glory it gained in the Winter War with Finland in 1939 and Germany in 1941? Will Russia, which started the fight against Ukraine under the name of ‘special military action’ thinking it was trivial, enter into a full-scale war adventure this winter? Will Ukraine, which is liberating lost territories one by one against Russia, the second largest military force in the world, with a rapid military campaign, win an unexpected victory like David against Goliath? Will the coup against President Vladimir Putin’s pride pillar, the Kerch Bridge, which connects Russian-annexed Crimea and the Russian mainland, and Putin’s trump card, the Nord Stream gas pipelines, force Russia to take drastic action ? Could Putin’s firm threat to use nuclear weapons if any post-referendum attack on the annexed parts be seen as an attack on Russia lead to nuclear war in Europe? Moreover, how will the Russian-Ukrainian war, which is entering its ninth month, affect Europe and the world? Let’s check in detail…
