Vladimir Putin has been warned not to cross NATO’s “red lines”, as fears of a major military conflict between the West and Russia explode.
Tensions between Moscow and the West are reaching a “critical mass”, according to Russia.
The Kremlin is furious that NATO continues to supply weapons and missiles to Ukraine, as it fights to repel the Russian invaders.
In particular, Putin’s generals are deeply concerned about the imminent delivery of F-16 fighter jets to Kyiv.
The US-made jets are capable of carrying missiles armed with nuclear warheads, a fact Putin’s army was quick to point out in a statement last week.
Russia said the situation could spiral out of control and “explode” due to NATO’s “recklessness”.
The Kremlin’s increasingly belligerent rhetoric comes as Western intelligence services warned this week that Russia is preparing to carry out a campaign of covert bombings and arson attacks across Europe – potentially putting the lives of civilians at risk.
Such attacks on NATO territories could theoretically be seen as acts of war, raising the question of what would be an appropriate response by the West.
Linas Linkevičius, Lithuania’s ambassador to Sweden, told the Express.co.uk that Putin must be sent “a very clear message” in the event of such attacks.
“If Russia would cross this last red line, let’s say, attacking NATO territories, the response must be full-scale, devastating, no doubt,” he said.
He added: “My assumption is they will not go so far. But they have plenty of opportunities to use existing tools and methods (asymmetrical) to cause disruption.”
The ambassador recently provoked anger in Moscow after he implied in a cheeky tweet that the Kerch Bridge in Crimea would soon be destroyed by Ukraine.
Dmitry Polyansky, a senior Russian envoy to the United Nations, said the Lithuanian ambassador would come to bitterly regret his words.
However, the Lithuanian diplomat told the Express if the Russians were nervous, then that was their problem.
“It was not a call to destroy the bridge,” he explained. “I was saying they should be careful.
“Ukrainians now have weapons, and these weapons can reach Crimea, definitely can reach this bridge. And so this was the meaning of the tweet. Guys, be careful, you know.”
Mr Linkevičius urged Western leaders to be much bolder in their dealings with Putin and to stop artificially limiting their options for action against the Kremlin tyrant.
Recently EU leaders reacted with horror to President Macron’s suggestion of sending NATO troops to Ukraine to help defeat Putin.
But the ambassador backed Macron, saying he was merely warning Putin that no action against Russia would be ruled out by the West in an attempt to reintroduce the element of surprise and uncertainty.
He said: “What we are doing wrong from our side in treating Russia – usually we are drawing ourselves numerous red lines. We are saying what we are not going to do, what we’re not going to act, to draw in these red lines for ourselves. And that was from the very beginning of this full-scale aggression
“I agree very much (with what Macron said). It exactly goes along the lines I called about for unpredictability from our side. Because Macron didn’t say that we will send troops tomorrow, right?
“He’s not talking about troops next week. He was talking about eventually not excluding this option, this possibility in the future, which is definitely true.”
