It was almost predictable: Vladimir Putin has been stirring mischief in Ukraine for months and flooding the region with weapons. On Thursday, a Malaysian Airlines jet with 295 aboard, possibly including 23 Americans, was downed by a missile.
It is now impossible to believe that what is happening in Ukraine is of no concern to anyone outside the region.
Obviously, many key questions remain at this point regarding Thursday’s incident, which Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko denounced as “a terrorist act.”
But there are strong suggestions that the plane, Flight 17, bound from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, was shot down by either Russian forces or pro-Russian separatists, using anti-aircraft missiles supplied by the Kremlin.
If true, President Obama and Western European leaders will be obliged to respond — if only because their own citizens’ lives are now at risk.
Certainly, it would come as no surprise if Moscow were responsible, either directly, or through its rebels. The plane came down outside Donetsk, which is controlled by separatists.
Putin has been moving heavy weaponry into that area. In recent days alone, Russia redeployed more than 10,000 troops along its border, and two Ukrainian planes were downed in the past week.
All this points to a determined campaign by Putin that began with his blatantly illegal seizure of Crimea in March. US and European Union sanctions have been too weak to serve as an effective deterrent.
Even if the shooting were merely a tragic accident, it would not eliminate Putin’s culpability.
As Gen. Phil Breedlove, NATO’s supreme commander, wrote in The Wall Street Journal: “Russia’s military actions in and around Ukraine have not been, and are not now, defensive.”
And those actions are now threatening American lives. That calls for a response that will finally make Putin sit up and take notice.