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Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine and the international condemnation it generated contains key lessons for policymakers.

The Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan Niazi’s visit to the Russian Federation has resulted in a damp squib, if not a ‘diplomatic disaster’. To call it just ill-timed because of Russian invasion of Ukraine is to hide the frustration beneath. True, President Vladimir Putin had little time when Russia’s hell-bent desire to punish Ukraine was the prime priority even to offer diplomatic etiquette in dialogue with him - the entire government at Kremlin having been on pins and needles. The pessimism is over the Pakistani premier’s request for a $1 billion credit advance to Pakistan for the proposed Gas Pipeline project. It has been politely rejected by Putin at the meeting between the two leaders, according to reports.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine is both a humanitarian tragedy and an economic disaster. Something is dangerously wrong in a world where its second largest oil producer is now a pariah state and will soon be crippled once its banks are ejected from SWIFT.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine and the fierce battle between the two nations for the last 5 days have strengthened the worst fears of our times. It seems that a war is never a done thing; it’s always possible. But what’s truly devastating is the spectre of nuclear war and Russia’s ability to practically finish the entire planet with over 6000 nuclear heads it has. Not that Russia alone has this nasty claim to notoriety. Even the West has almost an equal amount of nuclear arsenal and it only means that the world’s existence is doubly as precarious.

Russia has been thrown out of what is called the “SWIFT” system, which is a kind of global gmail network among banks to undertake their funds transactions securely. Exclusion from this network would mean that Russian banks would not be able to carry out their normal international financial transactions with other banks.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has provided yet another instance of gold proving its safe haven value. As Russian forces entered Ukraine and pressed towards Kiev, gold price surged to an intra-day high of US$1,974 per ounce on Thursday, corresponding to Rs 52,797 per 10 grams on India’s MCX. Hectic buying was witnessed all across the world, accompanied by a strengthening dollar and crude oil well past the boiling point of $100 per barrel.

Ukraine is about much more than the security of one sovereign nation. The battle for Ukraine is a battle for the new world order.

So, as Ukraine eats into our conscience and we shirk from thinking of Ukrainian children caught in the Russia-Ukraine war, which is increasingly beginning to look like a battle of egos of two individuals, one presiding over a war-machine with the second best ranking in the Global Power Index, and the other who was a comic now the living symbol of a tragedy unfolding on the banks of the Black Sea.

Israel and Gulf states struggle not to fall off the tightrope they walk as a Russian attack on Ukraine makes hedging bets increasingly tricky.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is sickening. Vladimir Putin had this Monday claimed that the “Kiev regime” refused any resolution of the conflict in the Donbas except through “military means.” The Russian president now claims to resolve it with far more bloodshed, already spreading beyond the Donbas region and risking a wider conflagration.