“The Belgian minister is convinced that Putin’s nuclear threats are just a bluff.”, — write: www.unian.ua
The Belgian minister is convinced that Putin’s nuclear threats are just a bluff.
Minister of Defense of Belgium Theo Franken / frame from the videoRecently, Putin has again started flaunting nuclear weapons to intimidate the West and discourage Ukraine from helping. However, if Russia inflicts even a non-nuclear attack on NATO countries, they will “level Moscow to the ground” in response. This was stated by the Minister of Defense of Belgium, Theo Franken, in an interview with De Morgen.
In particular, he was asked to comment on Russian threats of escalation, which the Kremlin voiced in response to talks about the possible supply of Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine.
“Putin said the same thing when Finland and Sweden joined NATO, when we supplied tanks, missiles, F-16 [Україні]… The lesson is that we should not allow ourselves to be threatened,” the minister said.
Franken reminded that, having provided weapons to Ukraine, the West allowed them to be used exclusively on Ukrainian territory, prohibiting strikes against the Russian Federation. In his opinion, this decision only prolonged the war. When Ukraine did start to hit objects in Russia, Putin did nothing.
“He knows: ‘If I use nuclear weapons, they will wipe Moscow off the map,'” the politician noted.
At the same time, the Belgian minister rejected the possibility that in revenge for the Ukrainian attacks on the Russian Federation, Putin would one day dare to attack Brussels – the capital of Belgium, where the governing bodies of the EU and NATO are located.
“Because then he will strike the heart of NATO, and we will raze Moscow to the ground,” said Franken.
The Embassy of the Russian Federation in Belgium reacted to these words of the Belgian Minister of Defense, taking certain phrases out of context.
“The provocative and irresponsible statements of one of the main Belgian “hawks”, who predicted “Russian strikes on Brussels” and threatened to “wipe Moscow off the world map”, do not deserve attention, given their complete absurdity and detachment from reality. It seems that the madness is only intensifying,” the Russian embassy said in a statement.
Aggression of the Russian Federation: the politics of EuropeAs UNIAN wrote, Europe plans to continue supporting Ukraine in the future, but European countries no longer want to finance this support from their own budgets. Therefore, the only real option remains to provide Ukraine with a “reparation loan” against Russia’s frozen assets.
With this in mind, the European Commission is increasing pressure on the governments of those countries that still resist the idea of a reparation loan. The argument used by Brussels: either Ukraine will be given money by Russia, or Europe must pay from its own pocket.
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