The Russian President, Vladimir Putin, has warned of nuclear conflict if Ukraine joins NATO and seeks to regain control of Crimea. In a press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron, Putin said, “Do you understand it or not, that if Ukraine joins NATO and attempts to bring Crimea back by military means, the European countries will be automatically pulled into a war conflict with Russia?”. Putin recognised Moscow’s military power is ‘incomparable’ with that of NATO, but warned his country is still ‘one of the leading nuclear states’. The Kremlin continues to deny any plans to launch an invasion and instead point the finger at NATO for its expansion further east through Europe. The standoff between Russia and the West began when Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.
Transcript:
The USA withdrew from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, despite lengthy attempts to dissuade them from doing so. This treaty was one of the fundamental agreements for ensuring security. Nevertheless, the United States did what they did and now missile launchers are located in Romania and Poland, and soon they will be, if they aren’t already, equipped with Mk 41 launchers, on which Tomahawk missiles can be installed. This is no longer about anti-ballistic missile defense, but rather about strike systems that will cover our territory for thousands of kilometers. Isn’t that a threat?
Imagine that Ukraine becomes a NATO member and is filled with weapons, just like in Poland and Romania. Who will prevent them from launching operations in Crimea, not to mention Donbass? This is Russia’s sovereign territory, and the question is closed for us. Let’s assume that Ukraine is a NATO country and begins military operations. What do we do? Fight against the NATO bloc? But it seems to me that the United States is less concerned about Ukraine’s security, although they may be thinking about it to some extent. Their main task is to contain Russia’s development. In this sense, Ukraine itself is just a tool to achieve this goal. This can be done in different ways, such as involving us in some armed conflict and forcing even their European allies to impose the toughest sanctions on us. Or by dragging Ukraine into NATO and deploying weapons there, and pushing someone like Middendorf to make a decision about Crimea, using armed force. In any case, it will result in dragging us into an armed conflict.
To avoid such a negative development of the situation, we need to take into account the interests of all countries, including Russia, and find a solution to this problem.
