Russia: The military operation ends in two ways, and Finland will become a target if it makes a mistake

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed that the Russian military operation in Ukraine may end in the coming days, "either by achieving its goals, or through negotiations."

He said in a statement to the British "Sky News" channel: "The military operation in Ukraine may end in the coming days, according to two scenarios, either it will achieve its set goals, or it will reach an agreement through negotiations."

“Imagine if a NATO member, Ukraine, thinks about retaking Crimea, attacks Russia and Crimea, and with the application of Article 5 of the NATO Charter, the member states of the alliance that possess nuclear weapons will have to defend Ukraine, and a third world war may erupt. ...what we are doing now is to protect us from any potential threat of such a war.”

He continued, "The situation can be resolved through diplomacy.

This will depend to a large extent on the consistency of the Ukrainian position and to what extent they are prepared to accept our terms."

In response to a question about whether Russia considers the accession of Sweden and Finland to NATO as an existential threat to it, which could lead to "the use of nuclear weapons," he replied: "What do you mean? Further expansion of NATO? No, I do not think so."

He explained that "Moscow does not consider the imposed economic sanctions and pressure to be an existential threat to Russia... We have been living under sanctions for two decades, we are used to this situation, and we started preparing for these sanctions a year ago."

 First Deputy Chairman of the International Committee in the Russian State Duma, Vladimir Jabarov, noted that "the decision of the Finnish leadership to join NATO would be a strategic mistake, and would make Finland a target for Russia's response measures."

He said, "If the Finnish leadership goes for that, this will be a strategic mistake," noting that "from a geographical point of view, Finland and Russia are two neighboring countries, and Petersburg is a few hours away from Finland."

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