Finnish President Sauli Niinistö warns Europe to be cautious concerning the risk of escalation of the full-scale Russian war against Ukraine.
Niinistö expressed this opinion in an interview for The New York Times, as reported by European Pravda
Niinistö thinks that the war against Ukraine will last a long time and even though Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 was a “wake-up call” for Europe and NATO, now this fact is being gradually forgotten.
“We’re in a very sensitive situation. Even small things can change matters a great deal and unfortunately for the worse. That is the risk of such large-scale warfare. The risk that nuclear weapons could be used is tremendous,” Niinistö said.
He also spoke in favour of cautious policy of such states as the US and Germany concerning supplying Ukraine with some kinds of armament, mainly for the attacks on Russia-occupied Crimea.
“There’s a difference between those who have responsibility and those who don’t… And I just wanted to point out that if there’s escalation to a big war, that’s world war, so then the nuclear risk becomes clearly bigger,” Niinistö thinks.
Niinistö stated this after a few cases of drone fragments – likely, Russian ones – being found on the territory of a NATO member state Romania. The country has recently expressed its readiness to shoot down unidentified drones crossing the Romanian airspace.
Earlier, Niinistö said that he does not see the war in Ukraine ending in the near future, and considers the risk of its extension or use of nuclear weapons to be high.
