Russian TV journalist Vladimir Solovyov said Russia was already waging a “de facto” war against NATO.Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images
A prominent Russian TV presenter says Moscow’s war in Ukraine will spread to Europe and the world.
The Kremlin is already beginning to wage a “de facto” war against NATO countries, he said.
“Ukrainians alone are no longer enough,” said Vladimir Solovyov. in a clip posted by Julia Davis of The Daily Beast.
A prominent Russian TV presenter said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is approaching a “new phase” that will see Moscow at war with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization – and by extension the whole world.
“I believe that the military special operation is entering a new phase. Ukrainians alone are no longer enough,” Vladimir Solovyov said, according to a translation of a video clip tweeted by Thursday Julia Davis from the Daily Beast.
In the widely circulated clip, Solovyov noted that NATO countries supplied arms to Ukraine. “Not only are NATO weapons involved, but also their operators,” he warned in his program “Evening with Vladimir Solovyov”.
Solovyov, a prominent state media figure and supporter of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has often repeated and reinforced the Kremlin’s pro-war rhetoric on state broadcaster Russia-1.
In the clip, he noted that Russia “is beginning to wage war against NATO countries.”
We will crush both the NATO war machine and the citizens of NATO countries,” Solovyov said. “When this operation is complete, NATO will have to ask itself, ‘Do we have what we need to defend ourselves? Do we have the people to defend us?’
“And there will be no mercy. There will be no mercy,” he added.
Echoing Putin’s call for Ukraine to be “denazified,” Solovyov said, “Not only does Ukraine need to be denazified, the war against Europe and the world is taking on more concrete contours, which means we need to act differently, and be much tougher.”
The story goes on
His comments come as several NATO member states announced they would provide Ukrainian troops with advanced weapons and heavy artillery and train them in the use of the equipment.
For example, the US is now sending in hundreds of armor-piercing “switchblade” drones designed to slam into targets and explode, and dozens of long-range artillery systems called howitzers. Britain has also announced it will provide 120 armored vehicles and anti-ship missile systems.
Solovyov’s recent comments on the war are consistent with what some military analysts and Putin critics have predicted: that the Russian leader will seek control of regions outside Ukraine, particularly Eastern Europe.
“We have to understand that Putin is not at war with Ukraine in his mind,” exiled Russian oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky told CNN on April 4. “He is at war with the United States and NATO. He said that more than once.”
Read the original article on Business Insider