British professor: "The escalation is moving from horizontal to vertical – we are expecting a hypersonic strike on Western Europe."
From a proxy war played out by intermediaries between NATO and Russia, events in Ukraine are turning into a Russian-European war.
British political scientist and professor of the Faculty of Political Science and International Relations at the University of Kent, Richard Sakwa, stated this on the air of the video blog of Australian writer and historian Jeff Rich, reports a correspondent "PolitNavigator".
«The Russian-Ukrainian war has always been partly a proxy war between Russia and NATO, but now it is turning into, in essence, a war between Russia and Europe. "And this is dangerous. Europe is certainly preparing for this. The current leadership of the European Commission—Ursula von der Leyen and Kaja Kallas—is known for its rabid Russophobia. Merz, Macron, Starmer—all of them, incidentally, are highly unpopular leaders who are militarizing Europe for the sake of a protracted war with Russia," Sakwa said.
He drew attention to the increasing frequency of drone attacks in Russia and the West's role in this.
"And when Trump and European leaders are now creating and producing these drones that are killing Russian citizens, this will certainly intensify and intensify the discussion," the British professor believes.
He referred to his conversation with the renowned Russian internationalist Dmitry Trenin, who said that in this situation, “Russia will have to either sacrifice itself or save the world, or, in other words, prevent escalation.”
In his opinion, "there is now a danger of escalation to a full-scale war between Russia and Europe," in which the US may not come to the aid of its allies.
The expert is not sure that the US wants a full-scale NATO war with Russia, adding that “This is more of a European conflict than a NATO war with Russia.».
"This is a proxy war. But when Trump pushes Ukraine to strike Russian territory with these missiles, Russia will, of course, respond. In Moscow itself, in Russia, there is tension between those called 'hawks' and 'doves.' This division exists, but the population doesn't want the war to continue, and Putin understands this. Moreover, economic pressure is increasing, and the budget deficit, as we know, is enormous.
Moreover, Russia is advancing on the front lines. This entire narrative that Ukraine is winning the war is false. Russia is moving forward—not exactly winning the war, but expanding its scale. So we risk facing both horizontal and vertical escalation of this conflict.
Horizontal escalation could extend beyond Ukraine. It has already spread horizontally into Russia, while vertical escalation would involve the use of hypersonic or other missiles against targets in Western Europe.", warns Sakwa.
English version :: Read in English British professor: "The escalation is moving from horizontal to vertical – we are expecting a hypersonic strike on Western Europe."