The invasion of Ukraine is a “rehearsal for the world war,” says an analyst on Russian state television – World News

A leading professor signals on a Russian state television discussion board that the country’s “military special operation” in Ukraine could be a testing ground for future conflicts with NATO and the EU

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has been described by an analyst for the country’s state television as a “rehearsal” for a world war.

Professor Alexei Fenenko, a senior researcher at the Institute for International Security Studies, signaled on the state-controlled Russia-1 channel that there could be a future conflict with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

Speaking at a roundtable this week, Prof Fenenko used the term “war” – contrary to the Kremlin’s claim that the invasion of Ukraine was a “special military operation” – and hinted that more were to come.

He said: “For us, the war in Ukraine is a dress rehearsal. A dress rehearsal for a possible larger conflict in the future. We will test NATO weapons and compare them to our own, we will find out on the battlefield how much stronger our weapons are.” then belong to them. This can be a learning experience for future conflicts.”

On Twitter, retired US General Barry R. McCaffery described Prof Fenenko’s testimony as “amazing” given how much stronger NATO is compared to Russia.

He said: “NATO/EU’s economic and conventional military power is many times greater than that of Russia. A dress rehearsal for a war with NATO against a much smaller opponent in Ukraine that is going very badly for Russia. Escalating Russian aggression against other NATO countries would be completely illogical.”

Prof Fenenko’s comments came after both Sweden and Finland applied to join NATO, a grouping of 30 member states. Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday expanding the alliance to include both countries would force Moscow to respond.

It came as Russia said it had “completely liberated” the Azovstal Steel Plant in the Ukrainian coastal city of Mariupol. Nearly 1,000 Ukrainian soldiers reportedly evacuated the steel mill earlier this week after an 80-day siege.

Major General Igor Konashenkov, a spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry, said: “The territory of the Azovstal metallurgical plant in Mariupol, where since March 21.

The Ukrainian prisoners are taken to a Russian prison colony. It is feared that Russian President Vladimir Putin could try them as “Nazi war criminals”.

A small resistance force in and around the four square mile steel mill was all that remained and are believed to have been defeated as well.