Stephen Cohen, contributing editor at The Nation, joined Democracy Now‘s War and Peace Report on Tuesday to discuss the latest developments in the Ukrainian conflict.

“We’re in a new Cold War with Russia. The epicenter of the new Cold War is not in Berlin,  but it’s right on Russia’s borders, so it’s much more dangerous…A political dispute in Ukraine became a Ukrainian civil war. Russia backed one side; the United States and NATO, the other. So it’s not only a new Cold War, it’s a proxy war,” Cohen said in his opening remarks.

Cohen went on to convey his disappointment over the erosion of the September ceasefire and its impact on the local population. “Five million people live in this area of eastern Ukraine. They’ve lived there for centuries. Their grandfathers, their parents are buried there. Their children go to school there. That is their home. Where is the humanity of these people who are dying, now nearly 6,000 of them? A million have been turned into refugees. These are people there.”

—Cole Delbyck