Putin ally, the Ukraine conflict is just a warm-up towards conflict between NATO and Russia

A Russian political science professor has claimed the war in Ukraine could simply be a ‘rehearsal’ for a bigger conflict, allowing Russia’s military to test and compare its firepower with that of NATO.

Alexei Fenenko, an associate professor at Moscow State University’s school of world politics and a research fellow at the Institute of International Security Studies, made the incredible claim yesterday during a talk show on Kremlin-controlled TV channel Russia One.

‘I think the war in Ukraine… is a rehearsal for a possible larger conflict in the future. We are testing our weapons against those of NATO, we will find out how much stronger our weapons are than theirs,’ the professor declared.

‘It could be a good learning experience for future conflicts,’ he added, before talk show host Olga Skabeyeva interjected: ‘It’s a scary experiment.’

The outlandish statement is the latest example of the Kremlin’s attempts to control the narrative surrounding its invasion of Ukraine, in which Putin’s forces have suffered huge losses and are coming under counter-attacks along the eastern front in the Kharkiv, Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

It came on the same day that a retired Russian military commander re-appeared on the show warning Ukrainian officials not to underestimate Russia’s military and economic might – despite having given a disparaging assessment of Russia’s war effort just days earlier.