Ukraine’s commander-in-chief warns Russia could escalate into nuclear war

• Russia could escalate the conflict into a “limited” nuclear war, according to Ukraine’s top military officials.
• Such an escalation could turn into World War III, they warned.
• The Ukrainian officials pointed out that Russia has shown how it “neglects” global nuclear security.

As Russia continues its war on Ukraine, Ukrainian military officials are warning that Russia could escalate the conflict into a “limited” nuclear war that could potentially trigger World War III.

Ukrinform, the country’s state news agency, published an op-ed written by Ukraine’s top military officials: Gen. Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and Lt. Gen. Mykhailo Zabrodskyi, the first deputy chair of the Ukrainian parliament’s national security, defense, and intelligence committee.

The officers pointed out how Russia’s unprovoked invasion, followed by its actions around Chernobyl and at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, clearly showed its “neglect” of global nuclear security. Throughout its invasion, Russia has held onto an underlying threat of using tactical nuclear weapons.

Zaluzhnyi and Zabrodskyi noted that such an escalation into nuclear attacks will not even break Ukraine’s will to resist, “But the threat that will emerge for the whole of Europe cannot be ignored.”

They added that even if the nuclear conflict is likely “limited,” Russia’s use of tactical nuclear weapons would make it a “global-scale terrorist state” that threatens not just Ukraine, but most of Europe. This can potentially lead to the “direct involvement of the world’s leading powers,” which would make “the prospect of World War 3” much more likely.

Several Western officials, including CIA Director William Burns, have warned that Russian President Vladimir Putin could resort to nuclear weapons if his troops continue to suffer heavy losses in Ukraine.

“We’re obviously very concerned,” Burns said in April. “I know President Biden is deeply concerned about avoiding a third world war, about avoiding a threshold in which, you know, nuclear conflict becomes possible.”

Just after the invasion, Putin had already placed Russia’s nuclear deterrent forces on high alert.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said last month, “It’s engaging in reckless, dangerous nuclear saber rattling, with its president warning that those supporting Ukraine self-defense ‘risk consequences such as you have never seen in your entire history.’”

In early August, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also warned that “humanity is just one misunderstanding, one miscalculation away from nuclear annihilation.” Guterres cited the “invasion of Ukraine by Russia” when he talked about “nuclear undertones” that were “festering” worldwide.

Source: Yahoo!