NATO says full blown war with Russia is 'real possibility'

NATO’s Secretary-General has warned how full blown war with Russia is something that is a ‘real possibility’, following the invasion of Ukraine earlier this year.

Jens Stoltenberg, Secretary-General of NATO and former Norwegian prime minister, stressed the importance of support for Ukraine as conflict continues.

In an interview with Norwegian journalist Anne Lindmo on NRK, he said the war could easily expand into a wider struggle with the Atlantic Alliance.

“If things go wrong, they can go horribly wrong,” he said, adding that there was ‘no doubt’ a full-blown war against NATO was a ‘real possibility’.

Stoltenberg continued: “I understand everyone who is tired of supporting Ukraine. I understand everyone who thinks that food prices and the electricity bills are far too high.

“But we have to pay a much higher price if our freedom and peace are threatened through Putin winning in Ukraine.”

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Stoltenberg has repeatedly issued caution this week about underestimating the situation in Ukraine.

Two days before his interview with NRK, he also claimed that Russia was intentionally stalling the war in a bid to 'regroup’ its forces ahead of a bigger campaign next year.

Speaking to the Financial Times, Stoltenberg explained: “What we see now is that Russia is actually attempting to have some kind of ‘freeze’ of this war, at least for a short period of time, so they can regroup, repair, recover, and then try to launch a bigger offensive next spring.”

Earlier this week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was also named TIME's Person of the Year, with the magazine citing his leadership amid the country's conflict against Russia.

Person of the Year is the US publication's annual issue which names a person, group, idea, or an object that 'for better or for worse... has done the most to influence the events of the year'.

Reporter Simon Shuster wrote of Ukraine’s leader: "Zelensky’s success as a wartime leader has relied on the fact that courage is contagious.

"It spread through Ukraine’s political leadership in the first days of the invasion, as everyone realized the President had stuck around.

"If that seems like a natural thing for a leader to do in a crisis, consider historical precedent."

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Shuster went on to point out that just six months earlier, Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani fled the capital when Taliban forces closed in.

Former Ukrainian leader Viktor Yanukovych similarly ran away from Kyiv when protesters descended upon his residence.

"There wasn’t much in Zelensky’s biography to predict his willingness to stand and fight," Shuster continued.

"He had never served in the military or shown much interest in its affairs. He had only been President since April 2019.

"His professional instincts derived from a lifetime as an actor on the stage, a specialist in improv comedy, and a producer in the movie business.

"That experience turned out to have its advantages. Zelensky was adaptable, trained not to lose his nerve under pressure. He knew how to read a crowd and react to its moods and expectations.

"Now his audience was the world. He was determined not to let them down.

"His decision to stay at the compound in the face of possible assassination set an example, making it more difficult for his underlings to cut and run."

If you would like to donate to the Red Cross Emergency Appeal, which will help provide food, medicines and basic medical supplies, shelter and water to those in Ukraine, click here for more information