Is This the Beginning of World War Three?

There were unwritten rules about avoiding conflict directly, ecause that could always escalate. And nuclear weapons were there above, providing a kind of blanket over the whole thing. But again, the reason to take us forces off the table directly in ukrane is not a nato member. The concern was that if we were to do it, it could lead, as you put it, to world war three. They too, as nativ countries, did not want things to go down ther path. So what flowed from it was what you might call an indirect strategy - bolster the ability of ukraine to resist russia invasion.