Ukraine crisis risks escalating amid stalled talks, rising hostility

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Russian President Vladimir Putin called the situation in Ukraine "a tragedy" and peace talks had reached a "dead end" in his meeting with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, asserting that economic sanctions imposed on Russia by nations around the world have "failed" and he had no intention of pulling back from a military campaign. 

Western media reported that Russia is planning a new operation to end or make significant progress in its military operation in Ukraine by May 9, Victory Day, to celebrate the former Soviet Union's victory over Nazi Germany, with a decisive battle in east Ukraine's Donbas region. 

Chinese analysts said on Tuesday that the positive trend achieved by previous peace talks in Turkey was ruined, and the West and Ukraine are likely to miscalculate Russia, making negotiations hard to restart. 

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Ukraine war could mark the most dangerous moment since the Cuban missile crisis, says ‘Sapiens’ author

• Israeli historian and bestselling author Yuval Noah Harari says the growing risk that Russia may turn to nuclear weapons poses an existential threat to humanity.
  
• “We are maybe in the most dangerous moment in world history since the Cuban missile crisis when a nuclear war is suddenly a possibility,” Harari told CNBC’s Geoff Cutmore Wednesday.
  
• Still, Harari warned that it is not for Western allies to try to preempt such action by seeking regime change in Russia.
  

Seven weeks into Russia’s war with Ukraine, still escalating tensions position society at perhaps the “most dangerous moment in world history since the Cuban missile crisis,” according to Israeli historian and bestselling author Yuval Noah Harari.

The “Sapiens” author said the growing risk that Russia may turn to nuclear weapons or other forms of chemical or biological warfare to advance its onslaught posed an existential threat to humanity.

“We are maybe in the most dangerous moment in world history since the Cuban missile crisis when a nuclear war is suddenly a possibility,” Harari told CNBC’s Geoff Cutmore Wednesday.

The Cuban missile crisis of 1962 refers to a period of direct conflict between the U.S. and the then-Soviet Union, often considered the closest the world has come to nuclear war.

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