A child is carried on a stroller across an improvised path while fleeing Irpin, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, March 9, 2022. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)
SALT LAKE CITY — “We are kidding ourselves if we think we’re not already in World War Three,” Utah County Attorney David Leavitt said on KSL NewsRadio recently when discussing Vladimir Putin and Russia’s war in Ukraine.
His comment came on the same day that the City Council of the southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol accused Russian forces of dropping several bombs on a children’s and maternity hospital, according to CNN.
Later a regional official told Ukrainian media that at least 17 people were injured, including staff and patients, as reported by the BBC.
KSL NewsRadio’s Dave & Dujanovic invited Leavitt onto the program, in particular, because he spent 14 years of his legal career in Ukraine.
“We’re dealing with a madman who’s creating a humanitarian crisis that the world hasn’t seen since World War Two, and we have to take this seriously,” Leavitt said, adding a no-fly zone needs to be imposed over Ukraine and enforced by NATO or by Ukrainian pilots flying NATO warplanes.
“Would you consider these attacks war crimes?” Dave asked.
“Oh, absolutely, 100%,” Leavitt said.
In Leavitt’s opinion, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s goal is to kill children and starve the innocent, then blame Ukrainians for the deaths because they wouldn’t submit to his will.
“And it’s that kind of twisted logic that motivates him to ratchet this up,” Leavitt said.
He added that Putin is seeking to link Crimea to Russia by leveling the city of Mariupol.
“Children, innocents, the elderly — everyone are objects that are expendable for his goal,” he said. “It’s going to get worse unless we step up and simply defeat him.”
“If we do step up, if we do try to defeat him, the fear is (that) things will go nuclear. You call him a madman, and I agree, but isn’t that what a madman does when he’s desperate and there is no offramp, that he could turn nuclear?” Dave asked.
“I think that’s certainly a consideration,” Leavitt said. “I think we’re kidding ourselves if we don’t think it’s a consideration. The only language he [Putin] understands is brute force, and that’s what we need to give him.”
Dave & Dujanovic can be heard weekdays from 9 a.m. to noon. on KSL NewsRadio. Users can find the show on the KSL NewsRadio website and app, as well as Apple Podcasts and Google Play.