People protest during a Nato defence ministers meeting in Belgium on Thursday
(Picture: REUTERS)Russia has warned Ukraine joining Nato could trigger World War Three.
Russian Security Council deputy secretary Alexander Venediktov said Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine would be guaranteed to escalate into a global conflict if Ukraine joined the military alliance.
Just hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin formally proclaimed the annexation of up to 18 per cent of Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky announced a bid for fast-track membership of Nato. All the alliance’s 30 members would have to give their consent to join.
“Kyiv is well aware that such a step would mean a guaranteed escalation to World War Three,” TASS reported Mr Venediktov saying on Wednesday.
Mr Venediktov, who is deputy to Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev, a powerful Putin ally, said he felt Ukraine’s appication was ‘propaganda’, as the West understood the consequences of Ukrainian membership of Nato.
“The suicidal nature of such a step is understood by Nato members themselves,” he said.
Russia has opposed the extension of Nato membership to ex-Soviet states and called for alliance military activity on its doorstep to be curtailed.
Mr Putin last month warned the West he was not bluffing when he said he would be ready to use nuclear weapons to defend Russia against what he said was “nuclear blackmail” from major Western powers.
US President Joe Biden has said the world faces the biggest risk of nuclear Armageddon since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.
Nato is due to hold an annual nuclear preparedness exercise dubbed “Steadfast Noon” next week.
Russia and the US are by far the biggest nuclear powers - they control about 90 per cent of the world’s nuclear warheads.
Mr Venediktov said Mr Zelensky’s call for preventive strikes against Russia was dangerous, cautioning that nuclear war would have catastrophic consequences for the world.
“We must remember: a nuclear conflict will affect absolutely the whole world — not only Russia and the collective West, but every country on this planet,” Venediktov said.
“The consequences would be disastrous for all mankind.”
Nato defence ministers are meeting in Brussels on Wednesday and Thursday “to step up and sustain support to Ukraine and continue to strengthen Nato’s own defences, against the backdrop of Russia’s most significant escalation since the start of the Ukraine conflict”, the alliance said.
“We have a difficult winter ahead. So it is even more important that North America and Europe continue to stand united in support of Ukraine and in defence of our people,” Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg concluded.
