The Iran and Ukraine wars have merged into a single conflict, but ‘we are still not at a true world war,’ expert says

Russia’s war on Ukraine began four years before the U.S.-Israel war on Iran did, but the battle lines are getting blurrier, while the conflicts threaten to draw in more participants.

The stakes are further elevated as President Donald Trump deploys thousands of U.S. troops to the Middle East for an anticipated ground assault meant to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

“Over the last week, there have been a couple of interesting developments that effectively merged the Russia-Ukraine war and the Iran war into a single conflict,” University of Pittsburgh political science professor William Spaniel said on his YouTube channel this weekend.

He pointed to Ukraine signing a security agreement with Saudi Arabia that will provide the kingdom with expertise Kyiv has developed in defending against Iranian-designed drones supplied to Russia.

In fact, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also made unannounced visits to the United Arab Emirates and Qatar to reach similar agreements. That’s as the Persian Gulf states have been bombarded by Iranian missiles and drones, which ar...