Ukraine war may be beginning of third world war: George Soros

Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin are tied together in an alliance that has no limits, he says

Billionaire investor George Soros has warned that Russia's invasion of Ukraine may be the beginning of the third world war and that the civilisation may not survive this war.

He also said that China's President Xi Jinping and Russia's Vladimir Putin are tied together in an alliance that has no limits.

In his annual speech in Davos on Tuesday, Mr. Soros said the world must mobilise all resources to bring the war to an early end and the best and perhaps only way to preserve the civilisation is to defeat Mr. Putin as soon as possible.

"The invasion may have been the beginning of the third world war and our civilisation may not survive it," he said.

He also said that the invasion of Ukraine didn't come out of the blue and Mr. Putin had informed Mr. Xi about it well in advance.

Mr. Soros noted that Mr. Putin and Mr. Xi met on February 4 at the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics and issued a long statement announcing that the cooperation between them has "no limits".

Mr. Putin informed Mr. Xi of a “special military operation” in Ukraine, but it is unclear whether he told Mr. Xi that he had a full-scale attack on Ukraine in mind, Mr. Soros said.