A Russian official has issued a chilling nuclear threat in response to plans to place Western peacekeeping forces on the ground in Ukraine.
Speaking to Russian state-owned news agency TASS, Sergei Shoigu said that Moscow is closely following European military preparations.
He claimed that plans for the “coalition of the willing” to keep peace on the ground risk NATO and Russia coming into conflict, via Newsweek.
Shoigu referred to Ukraine as ‘historical Russian lands’, and said that if peacekeepers were deployed to Ukraine or any Russian-occupied regions, it would risk World War 3 breaking out.
He claimed that the real purpose of peacekeepers would be to control Ukraine’s mineral resources, and added that any NATO forces in the area would be ‘invaders or occupants’.
Shoigu is a close ally of Putin, and was defense minister at the time of Russia’s full scale invasion of Ukraine.
It comes after Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he was willing to deploy peacekeeping troops to the region.
Last month, he said the plans were moving into an ‘operational phase’.
He told a press conference in Downing Street: “We agreed to accelerate our practical work to support a potential deal. So, we will now move into an operational phase.
“Our militaries will meet […] to put strong and robust plans in place to swing in behind a peace deal and guarantee Ukraine’s future security.”
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