Vladimir Putin could consider striking a NATO base in order to halt the transfer of arms to Ukraine, a former British security chief has warned.
Lord Ricketts, the Government’s first national security adviser, said yesterday that Mr Putin is becoming ‘increasingly desperate to choke off the flow of arms’ to Ukraine.
He may even do this by attacking aircraft or convoys headed to the country from NATO, Lord Ricketts suggested.
Lord Ricketts, the Government’s first national security adviser, said yesterday that Mr Putin is becoming ‘increasingly desperate to choke off the flow of arms’ to Ukraine
Lord Ricketts fears the conflict is moving towards ‘an angry stalemate, where Russia will hold on to quite a large part of the country’
He fears the conflict is moving towards ‘an angry stalemate, where Russia will hold on to quite a large part of the country’ and Ukraine will not agree a settlement deal, he told the BBC.
He also warned that the conflict could continue for ‘years and years to come’ as a guerrilla war like an ‘open wound in the middle of Europe’.
‘I suppose what President Putin wants us all to fear is that he might want to use a nuclear weapon in Ukraine, which would be a momentous escalation and ensure Russia was isolated around the world,’ he said.
‘More likely, I think what they’re looking at is some way of preventing or limiting this flow of arms into Ukraine, keeping the Ukrainian Armed Forces going.
‘So we may see attacks on convoys or aircraft bringing the arms in from the west.
‘I think what they’re looking at is some way of preventing or limiting this flow of arms into Ukraine, keeping the Ukrainian Armed Forces going,’ he warned. Above, President Vladimir Putin
Ukrainian servicemen load a truck with the FGM-148 Javelin, an American man-portable anti-tank missile provided by US to Ukraine
A Ukrainian serviceman holds the FGM-148 Javelin at a checkpoint, where they held a position near Kharkiv last month