It is essentially necessary to bring the war in Ukraine to an immediate end.  The longer the war continues the more complicated it will become to resolve.

The Soviet war on Afghanistan in the 1980s brought extremists mostly from Muslim states to the landlocked country. The invasion made the country a safe place for terrorism to breed. The fact that al-Qaeda network used Afghanistan as a platform to advance its vicious goals is clear to all.

The war in the country led to catastrophe after another. The extremist ideology in Afghanistan started to give birth to other groups whose brutality superseded that of al-Qaeda. Daesh, also called ISIS/ISIL, is a concrete example.

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is quite a familiar name. Al-Zarqawi, who ran a terrorist training camp in Afghanistan, went to Iraq to quench his thirst for more bloodshed by brutalizing Iraqi civilians and soldiers after the U.S. invaded the country in March 2003. In fact, the war on Iraq spread the area of activity by extremists.

The chaos that followed the civil war in Syria also brought extremists to the country from dozens of countries, including Chechens from Russia. They poured into the country from Indonesia and Malaysia in southeast Asia to those in Western European countries.

The wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria are an eye opener about the dangers of extremism.

Now those extremists who used Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan as their battlegrounds, may seek to find a way to Ukraine, especially as the domain of their action has been greatly reduced in these countries. They are adventurers who have thirst to kill and don’t care who is right or wrong. This is in addition to far-right extremists from Europe and North America who are already seeking to enter or may have entered Ukraine to fight the Russians.

In a report on March 3, Brookings said, “When foreign fighters deploy, violence against civilians goes up.” It added, “Far-right militias are already declaring they plan to exploit the war (in Ukraine).”

Also, in a report on February 25, one day after Russia invaded Ukraine, the New York Times reported, “The Russian attack on Ukraine has prompted a flurry of activity among far-right European militia leaders, who have taken to the internet to raise funds, recruit fighters and plan travel to the front lines to confront the country’s invaders.” The Times used the SITE Intelligence Group, a private organization that specializes in tracking extremist groups, as its source.

Before it is too late and extremists turn their guns against Ukrainians all must work hard to end the Russian war against Ukraine. Failure to silence the guns in Ukraine then one should not wonder if Ukraine becomes another Syria, Iraq or Afghanistan. In that case even the Russians, who now feel they have the upper hand in Ukraine, will suffer greatly.