There are uncomfortable parallels between Europe in 1938 and the world today.
A story you may have missed is about Lithuania. This Baltic State has been friends with Taiwan, or the Republic of China as it was, for a hundred years on and off. Recently they have got much closer. Lithuania has sent Taiwan vaccine jabs and got face masks and cookies in return. Diplomatic relations have been established. If the government in Vilnius thought they were too small and far away a country for China to notice they were mistaken. China has stopped all imports of goods from Lithuania causing trouble for foreign firms invested in Lithuania as part of their supply chains. They have been blind-sided but no doubt can migrate to Estonia, Latvia or Poland – perhaps not Belarus.
Lithuania’s second language is Russian and almost 5% of the population are Russians. Chinese economic sanctions will undermine the economy. Is China meting out punishment for Lithuania chumming-up to Taiwan or is President Xi doing President Putin a favour by creating a situation that could be exploited by Russia? Sudetenland 1938 or Sarajevo 1914?
The UK Defence Minister (it was more accurate when it was called the War Office) says there will be economic sanctions if Russia nibbles away any more of Ukraine; not military intervention. Would NATO countries defend Lithuania as they are obliged to do? Like Jeremy Paxman, I ask the questions but I don’t have the answers.