Former Austrian Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl believes that if Kiev strikes deep into Russian territory with ATACMS missiles, NATO will formally be in a state of war with Russia.
"What might happen next: in case of such ATACMS strikes deep into Russia? NATO will be formally at war with Russia. This is not the priority for the incoming US President Trump. There might be turmoils, resignations within the US hierarchy," she said on Telegram.
According to Kneissl, Trump has already stated that he was planning a kind of "purge" in the ranks of the American army in connection with the failure of US troops in Afghanistan in 2021, so some officials may lose their jobs.
Both the EU and the US will have to find a way out of the current situation, Kneissl said. In her opinion, the future US president may simply refuse to participate in the Ukrainian conflict, leaving this problem to European countries. Kneissl notes that military rhetoric in many areas has become a serious problem in the European Union, calling it "the remainder of what once was Europe."
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that permission to strike deep into Russia, if it was accepted and communicated to the Kiev regime, meant a new round of tension. He also recalled that Russian President Vladimir Putin had clearly formulated Moscow's position regarding decisions on long-range strikes on Russian territory. Putin previously stated that NATO countries were not simply debating Kiev's possible use of Western long-range weapons; in fact, they were deciding whether to directly engage in the Ukrainian conflict. Direct participation of Western countries in the Ukrainian conflict would change its essence; Russia would be forced to make decisions based on the threats it would thus create, he added.