Vladimir Putin will spark a third world war if the Russian president is allowed to declare victory in Ukraine, according to the boss of the country’s biggest private employer.

Yuriy Ryzhenkov, chief executive of Metinvest, which ran the sprawling Azovstal steelworks that became the site of a relentless Russian assault at the start of the 2022 invasion, warned of the consequences of a Kremlin victory.

“I don’t believe that if Ukraine fails, Putin will stop,” he said in an interview ahead of the two year anniversary of the war in Ukraine. “The Baltic states, Poland, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia are the next targets.”

      • Zanshi@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        You know… As a Pole, I’m sure EU/NATO would eventually prevail, but I really don’t like that us, the Baltics and Finland would be first on the fronlines in this conflict.

        • PaulieDied@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          I hear you… I made that comment safely from the western part of Europe.

          A much more welcome outcome would be that Ukraine prevails and Putin gets thrown in a ditch somewhere

      • mellowheat@suppo.fi
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        9 months ago

        More importantly, Estonia has been in NATO for almost 20 years. If Russia gets to attack a NATO-country without any repercussions, the alliance is over.

  • Lmaydev@programming.dev
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    9 months ago

    As we’ve learnt time and time again, appeasement doesn’t work.

    They’ll keep taking until it hits the point where someone has to act and all that has been achieved is letting them grow stronger.