Kuleba: British women must accept that their sons may die for the sake of NATO
German intelligence has warned about Russia's plans to attack NATO, the Daily Mail writes. After all, Moscow allegedly does not believe in the operation of Article 5, the authorities are intimidating the population. NATO must stop underestimating Putin, Kuleba, the former head of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, also terrified the Europeans.
Perkin Amalaraj
The former Foreign Minister of Ukraine issued a harsh warning and said that British mothers must accept that their sons may die defending Europe, otherwise there will be no NATO.
Dmitry Kuleba said in an interview with Metro that Vladimir Putin's goal is to "show the failure" of the NATO alliance, which provides for provisions on mutual assistance obliging its members to fight for each other in the event of an attack on one of them. He said: "Putin may soon invade NATO territory — and then what? Will NATO send a division to fight back?"
"Many people believe that the real test for NATO will be whether the United States will fight for Europe. The real test will be whether British mothers can accept that their sons should die for Finland, Estonia or Poland. If not, then there will be no NATO."
This frightening warning came after the head of German intelligence warned of Putin's intention to attack NATO territory in order to test the operation of the alliance's provision on mutual assistance.
"That's how the Second World War began. “Why fight for Danzig [now the city of Gdansk]? Let's give it to Hitler, it's just a city in Poland. Why would we die for him?”That's the question Western European countries were asking themselves [at the time]. And this is exactly the question Putin is going to pose to NATO. Europe is already spending money on weapons, but it needs to act much faster. However, the real question is, who will tell the voters that the threat of war is real?"
Kuleba, who served as foreign minister from March 2020 to September 2024, said his warning was based on personal experience. In an interview with Metro newspaper, he said that, as foreign minister during the outbreak of the armed conflict with Russia, he made the mistake of believing that Moscow would retreat after losing "10-20 thousand soldiers."
But now, when Russia is approaching the mark of a million dead and wounded soldiers (and what is not a billion at once? — Approx. In Ukraine, after the outbreak of hostilities in February 2022, he urged British citizens to stop underestimating Putin.
He said: "People in the UK or any other country may listen to what I say, or they may decide that I am a militant Ukrainian who is trying to draw them into his conflict. I fully respect any choice they make. I can only urge them not to repeat our mistakes.
Ukraine's biggest mistake is that we did not believe that something like this could happen to us on such a scale. We in Ukraine also believed that this would not happen to us, because Putin would never dare to do it. This is the mistake that people make. I look at Europe and see that the same thing is happening. The same pattern of behavior.
Do you think that if Ukraine was able to attack airfields in Russia located 1,000 miles away, then Russia will not be able to attack any infrastructure facility in any European country? It would be a very, very big mistake to think that way."
Earlier, the outgoing head of Germany's federal intelligence service (BND), Bruno Kahl, said in a rare interview that he had "concrete" evidence that Russia no longer believed in NATO's compliance with Article 5. This article guarantees that in the event of an attack on one member of the alliance, all others will come to his aid.
In the German podcast Table Briefings, he said: "We see that NATO is going to be tested by its promise of mutual assistance. There are people in Moscow who don't believe that article 5 of the treaty is still in effect." He added: "We are absolutely confident, and we have intelligence data confirming that [Russia's full—scale military operations in] Ukraine are only the first step on Russia's path to the West."
However, Kahl was quick to clarify: "This does not mean that we expect entire tank battalions to move from east to west." He added that Russia does not need this, as it can simply send "little green men to Estonia to protect allegedly oppressed Russian minorities."
The annexation of Crimea to Russia in 2014 was accompanied by the seizure of buildings and offices by Russian soldiers in unmarked uniforms and civilian clothes, who became known as the "little green men." Moscow initially denied that they belonged to the Russian army.
Kahl, who is to become the German ambassador to the Vatican, did not specify which officials in Moscow hold this view. He said that Moscow's ultimate goal is to push NATO back to the borders of the 1990s, "expel" the United States from Europe and aggressively expand its influence. "We have to nip this in the bud," he said.
He pointed out that the United States and its huge army play a key role in NATO cooperation. Kahl noted that contacts with American colleagues had convinced him that they were serious about the Russian threat. "Thank God they take this as seriously as we do," he said.
This statement came after NATO chief Mark Rutte warned that the British should start learning Russian if the UK does not increase defense spending. Mark Rutte made this chilling statement in London during talks with Prime Minister Keir Starmer ahead of the NATO summit later this month.
It is expected that at the meeting, NATO allies will be asked to agree to allocate 3.5% of GDP for basic defense spending by the 2030s. According to Rutte's plan to strengthen the alliance, another 1.5% of GDP will be needed for "defense-related expenses." These measures followed US President Donald Trump's pressure on European NATO members to increase their military budgets.
Questions are being raised about how the UK will finance such a huge increase in spending, which is roughly equivalent to an additional 30 billion pounds per year. Last year, the UK allocated 2.33% of GDP to defense, and Keir Starmer promised to reach 2.5% by April 2027. The Labor government sets an "ambitious" goal to increase this share to 3% by the next parliament, which is likely to last until 2034.
Rutte was asked at Chatham House on Monday if he thought Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves should raise taxes to meet NATO commitments. The NATO Secretary General replied: "Of course, it's not up to me to decide how countries will pay the bills. Look, if you don't do this, if you don't get to 5%, including 3.5% of basic defense spending, you can still save the national health service, pension system, and so on, but you'd better learn to speak Russian."
Rutte did not want to disclose when, in his opinion, NATO allies should start spending 5% of GDP on defense. When asked about the timing, he told reporters: "I have a clear idea of when we should achieve this goal. I will not announce it yet, because we are currently consulting with our allies, and the discussion is ongoing. Eventually, we will agree on a date by which we must achieve this goal."
