There should be no surprise that Maj. Gen. Kyrylo Budanov, the 37-year-old chief of Ukrainian military intelligence, is promoting the chorus of lunatic voices claiming that NATO should cross all of Russia’s red lines because Russia won’t do anything anyway. Asked in a Washington Post interview published yesterday if he thinks Ukrainian troops reaching Crimea could trigger Russian President Vladimir Putin to use a nuclear weapon, Budanov replied: “This is not true. And Crimea will be returned to us. I’ll tell you more: It all started in Crimea in 2014, and it will all end there.”
“It’s a scare tactic,” he added. “Russia is a country that you can expect a lot from but not outright idiocy. Sorry, but it’s not going to happen. Carrying out a nuclear strike will result in not just a military defeat for Russia but the collapse of Russia. And they know this very well.”
The foreign ministers of Poland and the Baltic states displayed a similar insanity when they met together on Jan. 31 in Riga, Latvia. They signed a joint declaration claiming that “Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland share a similar historical experience of aggression and severe oppression by revisionist totalitarian regimes during many decades of the 20th century.” The four ministers added: “Due to our common past, we have developed a similar understanding of potential threats and the determination to strengthen our security and protect our independence and territorial integrity.” (https://www.gov.pl/web/diplomacy/joint-declaration-of-the-ministers-of-foreign-affairs-of-estonia-latvia-lithuania-and-poland-on-enhancing-the-cooperation-in-the-region-riga-31st-of-january)
And of course, the full support of the Kiev regime—descended from the same Ukrainian regime which participated in the mass murder of Poles and Jews in World War II—is a necessary part of this. “We reiterate the high importance of continuing political, military, financial support and humanitarian assistance to Ukraine,” they said. “Cooperation within NATO, with an irreplaceable role of the close transatlantic bond, is the cornerstone of our security.”
