Speaking to NEWS.ru website on Feb. 3, Russian Major General of Aviation Sergei Lipovoy said that if NATO decides to send some kind of expeditionary force to Ukraine as the British are threatening, it could escalate the conflict to a nuclear level. “If suddenly NATO decides to send some kind of expeditionary force to Ukraine on the advice of Britain, if they try to close the sky over the territory controlled by Kiev, then the situation will reach a completely different level,” Lipovoy said. He said that could provoke an open conflict between NATO and Russia, and, in that case, Britain will not be able to “sit on its islands.”