Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has warned that the current escalation in tensions between Russia and the West will spill over into all-out war within three months. The terrifying warning comes as Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a chilling warning to the West claiming he is now nearing “a point of no return”.
Speaking to Switzerland’s Die Weltwoche, Mr Vucic said that Serbian officials were being tasked with “checking the stocks of oil, flour and sugar” given the growing risk of world war.
When asked “how close are we to a third world war,” the Serbian leader responded: “I believe we are not far from it. Not more than three, four months. And there is a danger to happen even before that.
“We are getting closer to a real disaster. Who is ready to lose 1 million, 2 million, 5 million, 10 million, and 15 million people? I’m not ready to lose a single man and won’t participate in that.”
Although formally seeking European Union membership, Serbia has refused to join Western sanctions against Russia, and has sought to position itself in the middle of the two sides.
Mr Vucic hit out at NATO officials who have claimed that President Putin is “bluffing” about using nuclear weapons in Ukraine.
He said: “If you bet that someone is bluffing, it means you don’t have better cards. I would always be very careful when assessing Putin’s will and his next move.”
The Serbian leader said that many of his fellow European leaders “underestimated Putin and Russia”.
He added: “In today’s Europe, they all act as the big heroes, but they are not honest and do not tell their citizens that they will all pay a big price if it comes to war.”
Last week, President Putin ramped up his aggressive rhetoric, fuelling fears that the current conflict in Ukraine could evolve into World War 3.
He told foreign ministry officials on Friday: “Calls to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia, which possesses the largest arsenal of nuclear weapons demonstrate the extreme recklessness of Western politicians.
“They either do not understand the scale of the threat they are creating – or are simply obsessed with their own sense of impunity and exceptionalism. Both can lead to tragedy.”
On Monday, the Kremlin lambasted NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg’s remarks about talks on deploying more nuclear weapons.
Over the weekend, Mr Stoltenberg confirmed that NATO is in talks to deploy more nuclear weapons, taking them out of storage and placing them on standby, in the face of a growing threat from Russia and China.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov rebuked the remarks, saying: “This is nothing but another escalation of tension.”
Russia says the US and its European allies are pushing the world to the brink of nuclear confrontation by giving Ukraine billions of dollars worth of weapons, some of which are being used against Russian territory.
Russia has about 1,558 non-strategic nuclear warheads, though arms control experts say it is very difficult to say just how many there are due to secrecy.
