Russia’s alleged annexation of four more regions of Ukraine received a clear message of condemnation in the eyes of the world. At the United Nations General Assembly, alongside Moscow, only four countries voted. On Thursday, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, a body that brings together representatives from 46 countries, declared Russia a “terrorist state”. Faced with these signs of isolation from Vladimir Putin’s regime – although he himself had a full day of meetings with other leaders in Kazakhstan – a senior official threatened to spread the conflict on a global scale.
For the deputy secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, Alexander Venediktov, Ukraine’s accession to NATO is the way to a conflict that will drag the entire world. “Kiev is well aware that such a step would mean a guaranteed escalation into a Third World War,” Venediktov told TASS news agency. Venediktov also reiterated the Russian notion that, in helping Ukraine, the West “is a direct party to the conflict”.
To the Russian threat, the West responded with word and deed. At the meeting of NATO Defense Ministers, at the request of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for help to protect the skies of his country, it was announced that Spain will send four Hawk missile launchers and a battery of Aspide anti-aircraft missiles and the Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg promised to send anti-drone equipment to Kiev in the hundreds. At the same time, 15 European countries (Portugal excluded) joined a project for the joint purchase of air defense systems. As for words, the head of EU diplomacy was blunt and the French president was controversial. Josep Borrell warned that Moscow’s use of nuclear weapons would lead in response to the “annihilation of the Russian army”.
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