The head of NATO expressions concern that the fighting in Ukraine could spiral out of control in a war between Russia and NATOaccording to an interview published Friday, the AP reports.
“If things go wrong, they can go terribly wrong,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told Norwegian broadcaster NRK.
“It’s a terrible war in Ukraine. It’s also a war that could turn into a serious war that could escalate into a big war between NATO and Russia,” he said. “We we work every day to avoid it.”
Stoltenberg, a former prime minister of Norway, said in the interview that “there is no doubt that full-scale warfare is possible“, adding that it is important to avoid a conflict” involving multiple countries in Europe and becoming a full-scale war in Europe“.
The Kremlin has repeatedly accused NATO allies of effectively becoming a party to the conflict by supplying Ukraine with weapons, training its troops and feeding military intelligence to attack Russian forces.
Speaking by video link on Friday with the defense and security chiefs of several former Soviet republics, Russian President Vladimir Putin again accused the West of using Ukraine as a tool against his side.
“For many years, the West has shamelessly exploited and pumped resources, encouraged genocide and terror in the Donbass and practically turned the country into a colony,” he said. “Now he’s cynically using the Ukrainian people as cannon fodder, like ram Russia by continuing to supply Ukraine with weapons and ammunitionsends mercenaries and pushes her down a suicidal path.”
According to the Ukrainians, they are fighting for freedom against an unwanted invader and aggressor.
Heavy fighting continued in eastern and southern Ukraine on Friday, especially in regions illegally annexed by Russia in September.
The Ukrainian presidential office said five civilians were killed and 13 others injured by Russian shelling in the past 24 hours.
This was stated by the Donetsk regional governor Pavlo Kirilenko the Russians continue their offensive against Bakhmut with daily attacks, despite heavy losses.
“You can best describe these attacks as cannon fodder” Kirilenko said in television remarks. “They rely mostly on infantry and less on armored vehicles and they cannot advance.”
In nearby Luhansk in eastern Ukraine, regional governor Serhii Haidai said the Ukrainian military was leading its counter-offensive against Kremina and Svatovo.
He expressed the hope that Ukraine could regain control of the Kremina by the end of the yearand then by the end of winter to recapture areas of the region that had been captured by Russia since the start of the war.
In the south, Kherson regional governor Yaroslav Yanishevich said eight civilians had been injured by Russian shelling in the past 24 hours, and in the city of Kherson, which Ukraine retook last month, a children’s hospital and morgue have been damaged.
In the nearby Zaporozhye region, Russian forces shelled Nikopol and Chervonogrihorivka, which lie across the Dnieper River from the Russian-occupied Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant.
The governor of Zaporozhye Valentin Reznichenko said so Russian shelling damaged residential buildings and power lines.
In the Kharkiv region of northeastern Ukraine, Governor Oleg Sinegubov said three civilians were wounded by Russian shelling and one died later.
