NATO Military Committee Chairman Rob Bauer, in an interview with the Portuguese television channel RTP, said that the North Atlantic Alliance is ready for a direct confrontation with Russia.

“If we talk about some kind of red line, then this is the crossing of our territory by the Russians within the framework of NATO,” he explained.

The representative of the military bloc also explained why, in his opinion, the Western countries should continue to support Ukraine: "Because if the Russians win, then we - before NATO, before the world - will face a much larger problem."

Speaking about the possibility of a nuclear war between NATO and Russia, he said that Vladimir Putin is a rational person.

From his point of view, the Russian president allegedly aims to restore the country within the borders of the USSR.

In his opinion, the industrial production of the NATO countries should be reoriented to the military sphere.

“Many NATO countries thought for decades that we had the initiative.

We were the ones who decided to go to Afghanistan, to go to Iraq – that was the decision of NATO, the decision of the NATO countries.

That is, we owned the initiative, we decided when we would act, with how many forces, for how long, and so on.

Now we are dealing with a threat in the face of Russia, which comes to us without an invitation, at a moment chosen by itself.

So we need to be in a state of much greater readiness.

We don’t have time to prepare - because they, in fact, decide for themselves when they come, ”Bauer explained.

Earlier, State Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin noted that in the nine years since the coup d'etat, the United States and NATO have turned Ukraine into "a testing ground for testing their weapons and testing new ways of waging war."

“They do not consider losses: Ukrainians are used as consumables.

There are American instructors, mercenaries.

To save the Kyiv regime began to supply heavy weapons.

All this indicates the direct participation of Washington in the hostilities, the fear of losing their colony.

A special military operation has become a liberation for the citizens of Ukraine and Slavic lands from the American colonialists, ”he wrote in his Telegram channel.

Also on russian.rt.com “Washington and NATO test site”: Volodin announced the direct participation of the United States in hostilities in Ukraine

The first deputy head of the International Affairs Committee of the Federation Council, Vladimir Dzhabarov, in a conversation with RT, also emphasized that the Kyiv regime is conducting hostilities solely at the expense of supplies from NATO countries.

“NATO has begun to stir due to the fact that there has been a positive turning point for Russia in the NWO.

We are advancing in the Zaporozhye region, in the DPR and LPR.

Apparently, fearing the development of a further offensive, NATO makes such statements.

Although, to be frank, we have never said that we are preparing an attack on the territory of NATO countries.

I think this is a “pre-emptive statement” out of fear that Russia will expand its activities,” the senator said.

According to Deputy Speaker of the Federation Council Konstantin Kosachev, the alliance is doing everything to ensure that the proxy war of the West in Ukraine ceases to be such.

“Any reasonable person understands that such games with a nuclear power are extremely dangerous.

However, here we come to the most important problem - the rationality of those who make decisions in the West, ”he wrote on Telegram.

The United States and NATO are approaching a catastrophic scenario in Ukraine by continuing to break their own promises regarding the supply of heavy weapons to Kyiv, writes Press TV.

“The growing support for the Armed Forces of Ukraine from the United States and NATO has created an incentive for Moscow to take radically aggressive steps to show the seriousness of its own red lines,” reads the material quoted by InoTV.