Mark Evans is Head of News for Enex, an association of the world’s leading commercial TV broadcasters. The war in Ukraine has been the top of the news agenda for the past year, and keeping abreast of the latest developments as well as events that may mark a future change is an important aspect of Evans’ job.
Evans noted that while we are now one year into the war - Russia launched its full-scale invasion on 24 February 2022 - we are no closer to an end than we were a year ago. “We have a seen a lot of rhetoric, a lot of big speeches this week, from both sides of the situation,” Evans noted, drawing attention to US President Biden’s visit to Ukraine on President’s Day, during which he pledged further support from the US “and by implication, the West’s and Nato’s support”.
Evan’s also drew attention to Putin’s State of the Nation speech a day later, “in which significantly he suspended the ongoing treaty which pledges both Russia and the US to doing everything they can to avoid any kind of escalation of conflict, particularly in a nuclear sense.”
This, said Evans, is balanced against UN Secretary Antonio Guterres’ condemnation of the invasion, calling it an affront to the conscience of the world.
In terms of what’s next, Evans said that “there’s two signficant things that I think may happen over the coming couple of weeks. One is an escalation of the kinds of weaponry that’s being provided by the West to the Ukraine,” not least with Ukraine being clear on their need for aircraft.
The second is the visit of China’s top diplomat Wang Yi’s visit to Moscow on Wednesday this week, and President Xi’s scheduled visit to Moscow in April or May. “The significant part of that is that for much of certainly last year, of 2022, China was very careful about presenting itself as a kind of non-aligned witness in these proceedings. What we’re seeing now is that they are very obviously sticking at least one foot inside the Russian camp.”
With tomorrow, 24 February, being the one-year anniversary, Evans says “it’s significant because Putin has threatened, he’s yet to be clear, but he’s threatened that there may be some kind of escalation of the conflict itself, of the actual physical fighting. Or maybe some kind of emblematic event that he’s planning, that he says will remind people of what Russia is trying to achieve.”
You can listen to the full interview with Mark Evans, first aired on the Sam Steen Show on RTL Today Radio, below.
