Ukraine’s former military commander in chief delivers chilling message: WWIII ‘has begun’
Kyiv’s former military commander in chief said the direct involvement of Russian allies in Ukraine means that World War III has officially begun.
“I believe that in 2024 we can absolutely believe that the Third World War has begun,” former military chief Valery Zaluzhny warned Thursday, according to Politico.
Zaluzhny, who now serves as Ukraine’s envoy to the UK, said Kyiv’s conflict is now on a global scale following the deployment of North Korean troops in Russia earlier this month.
Along with the presence of North Korean and Iranian weapons on the frontlines, Zaluzhny said his nation was besieged by international forces, urging Kyiv’s allies to respond in kind.
“It is obvious that Ukraine already has too many enemies. Ukraine will survive with technology, but it is not clear whether it can win this battle alone,” he said.
Zaluzhny’s grim warning came during the second Ukrainska Pravda’s UP100 award ceremony, which celebrates 100 leaders of Ukrainian civil society, politics, military, business, sports and culture.
The former military chief’s warning carries weight in Kyiv given his success in fighting off the initial Russian invasion in 2022, despite his ouster earlier this year amid growing tensions with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The speech comes as the war saw a significant escalation this week, with Russia firing a new kind of ballistic missile at Ukraine on Thursday.
Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed his forces fired a medium-range, hypersonic missile at a facility in Dnipro, correcting initial reports that a full intercontinental ballistic missile was used.
“This is a clear and severe escalation in the scale and brutality of this war,” Zelensky said of the attack on one of Ukraine’s largest cities.
Putin said the missiles would be used against any nation arming Ukraine, a clear warning to the US and UK, which have greenlit Kyiv’s use of their long-range weapons in Russia.
As the heavy fire increases, Moscow has also amassed 50,000 Russian and North Korean soldiers in the Kursk region to try and take back the territory from Ukraine.
Kyiv had launched a surprise counter-invasion in Kursk over the summer, capturing dozens of towns and transport hubs that humiliated the Kremlin’s forces.
The presence of more than 10,000 North Korean troops in Moscow was cited by US and UK officials as the key catalyst for their decision to approve long-range weapon attacks into Russia.
With Post wires
