Russian President Vladimir Putin warned the West on Monday, suggesting that a direct conflict between Russia and the US-led NATO military alliance would bring the world close to World War Three.
he conflict in Ukraine has sparked the most significant crisis in Moscow’s relations with the West since the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. Putin has frequently highlighted the dangers of nuclear conflict but maintains that he has not considered deploying nuclear weapons in Ukraine.
Reuters reported that French President Emmanuel Macron last month said he could not rule out the deployment of ground troops in Ukraine in the future, with many Western countries distancing themselves from that while others, especially in Eastern Europe, expressed support.
“It is clear to everyone, that this will be one step away from a full-scale World War Three. I think hardly anyone is interested in this,” Putin told reporters after winning the biggest ever landslide in post-Soviet Russian history.
Putin added, though, that NATO military personnel were present already in Ukraine, saying that Russia had picked up both English and French being spoken on the battlefield.
“There is nothing good in this, first of all for them, because they are dying there and in large numbers,” he said.
Putin ordered a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, triggering major European war after eight years of conflict in eastern Ukraine between Ukrainian forces on one side and pro-Russian Ukrainians and Russian proxies on the other.
Putin said he wished Macron would stop seeking to aggravate the war in Ukraine but to play a role in finding peace: “It seems that France could play a role. All is not lost yet.”
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