With weeks until 2025 and a new resident ready to move into the White House, the global diplomatic situation seems at its most fragile in decades.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has threatened to unleash the lethal Oreshnik missile on Ukraine and has claimed it is so powerful it would make nuclear weapons ‘obsolete’.

He has also continuously warned the West of a powerful response if it keeps arming Ukraine, while the U.S. has promised $1 billion in new security aid.

The Middle East appears to be on the cusp of a wider conflict as the war between Israel and Hamas drags into its second year and China is becoming increasingly belligerent towards Taiwan.

With each of these scenarios, the prospect of World War III is not the distant reality that it may have seemed in recent years.

While the majority of Americans still believe the chances are slim, the grim prospects aren’t lost on many. 

A DailyMail.com poll reveals that almost four in 10 voters fear that a global conflict is on the horizon.

DailyMail.com’s pollsters J.L. Partners asked 1,006 voters if they think the world is moving closer or further away from the Ukraine war escalating into a full global conflict.

Thirty-eight percent of respondents said we are ‘moving closer’ to an all-out war, while 26 percent said there has been ‘no change’ and 20 percent said we were ‘moving further away’.

Seventeen percent said they were ‘unsure’.

President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to bring the war in Ukraine in the end and talks of peace talks have been more promising since his election win. 

The poll also asked who would be to blame if Putin were to launch nuclear missiles.

Only half of Americans (51 percent) said the Russian leader would be solely to blame while 27 percent said they would blame Joe Biden.

In mid-November, the commander-in-chief authorized Ukraine to use Army Tactical Missile Systems, or ATACMS, that could strike deep into Russia.

The move was seen as a response to the thousands of North Korean troops who joined Russia’s ground forces to bolster Putin’s invasion.

It sparked accusations he was trying to escalate the war before he left office, and Putin responded a few days later by launching a hypersonic missile into Ukraine.

Despite the controversy, voters in the poll narrowly support the U.S. giving Ukraine permission to use American missiles for longer range attacks.

It comes as experts have slammed Biden’s handling of Russian aggression.

Heino Klinck the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for East Asia under Trump told DailyMail.com: ‘I think the survey results reflect a growing recognition that deterrence has failed during the Biden Administration. 

‘The failure of deterrence will be President Biden’s signature foreign policy legacy. Starting with the precipitous and calamitous US withdrawal from Afghanistan to the wars in Europe and the Middle East, the current administration has not been able to deter aggression and provide for a stable international environment. 

‘This also extends to North Korean missile tests and an unprecedented combat deployment to Europe as well as daily Chinese adventurism against US treaty allies and security partners. 

National security expert Mark Toth and former US intelligence officer Col. Jonathan Sweet are among those arguing that World War III is already upon us.

‘This third global conflagration doesn’t look or feel like what Hollywood envisioned,’ they told DailyMail.com earlier this month.

‘No mushroom clouds or apocalyptic wastelands. Rather, it is war by a thousand cuts, conducted across multi-regional and multi-domain battlefields.