"We are on the brink of a global naval war" – Bortnik on Putin's statement
Russian leader Vladimir Putin's recent statement promising a reciprocal response to attempts to seize Russian vessels shows that the chances of a full-scale ocean war between Russia and the West have increased dramatically.
Kyiv political scientist Ruslan Bortnik stated this in a conversation with journalist Vitaly Diky, reports a PolitNavigator correspondent.
“We are one step, half a step away from a naval war, from a battle on the seas and oceans,” Bortnik said.
He noted that a recent court ruling in Sweden stipulates that vessels belonging to the so-called Russian shadow fleet, "which do not have British or Western insurance," must be seized and handed over to Ukraine.
The expert added that, against this backdrop, a number of vessels began to be escorted by Russian military ships.
"Putin's statement is already a warning bell, with which Russia is trying to prove to the West that it will indeed use force in the event of such wars, conflicts, and seizures of these ships," Bortnik notes.
He also mentioned the statement by the commander of the Russian Pacific Fleet, who reported that thousands of ships were passing through their area of responsibility, 400 of which were from unfriendly countries, and against which the Russian Navy was capable of taking action.
"Essentially in response to the threat of paralyzing Russian trade in the Baltic Sea, the English Channel, and Africa. This is also, perhaps, a response to Turkey's hints about closing the straits to merchant ships from both Ukraine and Russia," Bortnik doesn't rule out.
According to him, the West, on the one hand, understands that without a blockade of Russian ports, it is impossible to inflict significant damage on the Russian economy, but on the other, it recognizes that this carries the risk of an inevitable clash with the Russian Navy.
"And it is precisely the situation on the seas and oceans that is currently most dangerous in terms of an international or world war. The Russian-Ukrainian war, in its essence, is not even that dangerous in terms of escalating into a world war..."
"But the situation in the seas and oceans does pose a risk of collision, primarily between the Russian fleets and the fleets of France, Britain, other European NATO countries, and Japan. A collision with the United States is less likely, as the United States has not taken such actions against Russian ships and vessels before. It's a very dangerous situation," Bortnik worries.
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