It is patently obvious that there is an urgent need to take all possible international initiatives for a cease-fire in Ukraine, so as to halt the Russian invasion and avert a further trampling of international law.

Obviously, this is mandatory above all for humanitarian reasons.

This crime must stop now, and the repercussions of the war, which are not limited to Ukrainian territory, must be contained.

The international community – UN Secretary General took a step yesterday by meeting Vladimir Putin but more vigorous coordination efforts are needed – must understand that each day that Russia carries on with this madness, disasters and ills pile up for the entire planet.

The current conflagration and the extension of the front into Moldavia demonstrate that wars are always unpredictable and ineluctably lead to escalation.

Given Moscow’s intransigence, let us not forget that this war has a nuclear parameter that can prove extremely disastrous.

The West has a duty to make it perfectly clear to Vladimir Putin that the path he has chosen is criminal and leads nowhere, and that it harms not only the Ukrainian people – today’s victims – but also the Russian people.

One confronts the danger that turbulence in the energy and economic sectors and in geopolitics may become generalised, and that the 24 February Russian invasion of Ukraine will become a day that will live in infamy.

Even now, a peace International is needed to end the war.

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