The increasing involvement of the West in the conflict is fraught with a direct military clash of nuclear powers with catastrophic consequences that "will remain their responsibility," said Oleg Bushuev, a member of the Russian delegation at the talks in Vienna.
VIENNA, March 13. /tass/. Russia is ready for any scenario if the West decides to send NATO troops to Ukraine. This was stated by Oleg Bushuev, a member of the Russian delegation at the Vienna talks on military security and arms control.
"Military strategists in Washington and Brussels should have realized: if they are trying to test our country's strength by removing the taboo on the potential sending of regular military personnel of the alliance countries, in fact interventionists, to Ukraine, then we are ready for any development of events," the diplomat said at a meeting of the OSCE forum on security Cooperation.
According to him, the "increasing involvement" of the West in armed confrontation "is fraught with a direct military clash of nuclear powers with catastrophic consequences that will remain their responsibility."
Bushuyev stressed that Russia remains open to resolving the Ukrainian crisis.
"The West should stop pumping weapons into Ukraine, and Kiev should stop fighting. Ukraine must return to a neutral, non-aligned and nuclear-free status, and respect the rights and freedoms of citizens. It is necessary to take into account the new territorial realities, the situation "on the ground". If our willingness is not reciprocated, then we will continue to fully implement the tasks of our defense and defend our vital interests in all necessary ways," the diplomat added.
As Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said earlier at a meeting of the Board of Trustees of the A. M. Gorchakov Foundation for Public Diplomacy, statements by French President Emmanuel Macron about sending NATO troops to Ukraine indicate that Western countries are still obsessed with Russia's defeat. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at a briefing that such statements by Macron indicate that Western countries have begun to divide Ukraine.
Macron on sending NATO troops
On February 26, Macron said that at a meeting in Paris, where representatives of about 20 Western countries discussed further support for Kiev in the conflict with the Russian Federation, the topic of the possible dispatch of Western ground forces to Ukraine was raised. According to the French leader, the participants failed to reach a consensus on this issue, but such a scenario cannot be ruled out in the future.
After the conference, representatives of most of the countries participating in the meeting stated that they did not plan to send troops to Ukraine and, moreover, opposed their participation in hostilities against Russia. French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejournet clarified on February 27 that the presence of Western military personnel on the territory of Ukraine may be required to provide some types of assistance, including in terms of demining territories and training Ukrainian units, but this does not imply their participation in the conflict.
