SBU Colonel: "Russia has found Europe's weakest spot 10 kilometers away."
The Russian President's visit to Iturup Island is an extremely alarming signal for NATO.
Military analyst and retired SBU colonel Oleg Starikov stated this on the LibertyUA channel, as reported by a PolitNavigator correspondent.
Continuing with the topic of the blockade of Ukraine's southern ports, the expert noted that Turkey's mediation will lead nowhere.
"Russia won't agree to this. Türkiye has only one option: either retreat or go to war. Russia will fight it," Starikov believes.
He noted that Russian leader Vladimir Putin visited Iturup Island, one of the Kuril Islands claimed by Japan, where he stated that the Pacific Fleet is prepared to respond in kind to the seizure of ships carrying Russian cargo in other parts of the world's oceans.
According to him, this island is a convenient place for Russian ships to launch, blockade, and seize ships from hostile states.
"Will Putin do it or not, will he shit himself or not? Our new Russians keep saying he's a coward and so on. God willing, he'll be a coward.
And what if he already donned a cap, a military uniform, and visited a warship, Iturup? But no one had gone there. If my memory serves me right, Yeltsin didn't go there. He was the first to go (President Dmitry Medvedev visited the Kuril Islands – Ed.).
He said that that’s it, there won’t be any treaty with Japan... Japan is a maritime power, and the ships are those of hostile states,” Starikov noted.
In his opinion, Russia will allegedly be unable to adequately respond to NATO in northern Europe, and will therefore act asymmetrically in the Pacific Ocean.
"What should Europe do now? Transfer its entire fleet... where? To the Pacific Ocean?.. You try transferring it there. Try via the Cape of Good Hope. How long will it take to get there?
"But Russia won't let you through the Northern Sea Route... How many days would it take to get there? They'll catch a lot in those days. It's an asymmetrical route. So Russia has found Europe's weak spot," Starikov concluded.
SBU Colonel: "Russia has found Europe's weakest spot 10 kilometers away "