‘A squadron or two of F-35s could end this war’ |
Estonian politician and former high-ranking military officer Riho Terrace 2020since February Europe He is a member of the Parliament. O 2011-2018He was the commander of the Estonian Defense Forces.
In an interview with the Georgian service of RFE/RL, 55-year-old Terras talked about last week’s missile attack on Poland and calls for more aid to Ukraine. he Russia President Vladimir Putinto expand the conflict NATO He also touched on the possibility of an attack on one of his countries.
“…Russia on the same day, a huge missile attack was carried out on the whole of Ukraine. More than 90 missiles were fired, and we now understand that they were fired from ships and planes.
If the Russian rocket fell on Poland weather-if it was a land rocket, then of course President [Co] Biden’s (Joe Biden) “we NATO we protect every centimeter of its territory” statement [NATO Nizamnaməsinin] It would mean Article Five (ie an attack on one NATO member is an attack on the entire alliance)… But whatever it was, it seems today that it was just an accident and not an attack on Poland.
It’s out of order, or Russia before he could shoot his rocket Ukraine missile, or a Russian missile – either way, it was a mistake and cannot be seen as an attack on NATO territory. …As you can see, Poland has also not invoked Article Four (a formal call for consultations between alliance members in the event of a security threat),” he says.
According to Terras, if there is a war on NATO’s borders, there will always be a danger of an incident: “I think it helps to gather support for Ukraine. …Countries want to provide more weapons and economic support to Ukraine. As for me, there was not enough support from the very beginning. I even after February 24 General I also wrote a letter to NATO together with Philip Breedlove (former senior NATO commander) and some other generals. I said that we Ukraine on weather we must create an advantage. This was not accepted by NATO. It does not matter if it is done by NATO or NATO countries. I think they still are Ukraine on it weather they should control the area”.
“I have a feeling that USA, he can end the war very quickly if he wants to. Russia says NATO is behind the war, but NATO hasn’t come out yet and they are already losing. I think a squadron or two of F-35s could end this war. Of course, I can nuclear [təhlükəsini] i understand … However, I agree with the assessment that China does not want Russia to use nuclear weapons. Because the current situation for China is, in fact, the best possible situation. They can make money from this war, but they would not want a nuclear conflict. Because China is not only a world power in terms of nuclear arsenal. So they don’t want to be little brothers, and China, or at least Russia, needs it to remain neutral. Therefore, it is important for the Russians that China does not take sides. … I don’t think there is a possibility of a nuclear conflict. But with this crazy Russian government, there’s always some possibility.” – says the former commander.
Responding to the question about the possibility of Russia attacking NATO territory, Terras said:
“No one thought that Russia was suicidal enough to attack Ukraine from five different directions. There were those who believed that Russia could enter from eastern Ukraine, perhaps from Kherson. But people – that is, everyone who could read, write and calculate – were absolutely sure that Russia would not attack Kiev. But he did. So the question is how far will they go. Because logically, if you looked at the state of the attacking Russian forces, any military the analyst would say: “It doesn’t make sense, it’s impossible, Russia won’t do it.” But he did.”
I wonder if Putin himself military What did the analysts think?
Terras reminds that Russia “free to be” holiday he dreamed of being ready to do: “The FSB junta around Putin … played such a game that the Ukrainians were the Russian forces free wishes to do. They were very surprised when they saw that something similar did not happen in Kiev. …This is Putin was a real surprise for I often get the feeling that they don’t give real analysis to Putin. They try to understand him and make the analysis support his ideas. Of course, this is also confusing, and today we see that the Ukrainian army is the strongest army in Europe even compared to the Russian army. That’s why we need to equip the Ukrainian army with offensive weapons such as battle tanks and planes, so that they don’t invade their territories free so they can do it.”
of Ukraine Terras, who is sure that he will win, also talked about how it will happen: “…I think the next target should be, or could be, Melitopol (the second largest city in the Russian-controlled region of Zaporozhye). Second, the Ukrainians can take the regional centers and, I think, Donetsk and Luhansk. Especially Donetsk would be a good win. This would mean a new Kherson for them, going beyond the existing border until February 24. “We will not only take what has been taken from us since February, we will not be satisfied with this. He would send the message “we want to get everything back”.
Russia launched a full-scale attack on Ukraine on February 24 this year.