UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said that Russia is gearing up for what could be the largest and bloodiest conflict in Europe since World War II.
“The plan that we’re seeing is for something that could be really the biggest war in Europe since 1945 in just in terms of sheer scale,” Johnson told the BBC in an interview broadcast on Sunday.
The PM said intelligence reports suggest that Moscow plans to invade Ukraine from several directions, “encircling Kiev.”
“All the signs are that the plan has already in some senses begun,” Johnson said, adding that “people need to understand the sheer cost in human life that could entail.”
Johnson’s remarks echoed those of US President Joe Biden, who said last month that a Russian attack on Ukraine “would be the largest invasion since World War II.”
This week, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken described Moscow’s supposed plan to attack Ukraine in detail this week. On Thursday, the UK Defense Ministry published a map of a “possible axis of invasion” of Ukraine.
Moscow has repeatedly denied claims that it was planning to attack its neighbor, insisting that troop movements in Russia and Belarus were part of routine training exercises.
Russian President Vladimir Putin will speak with his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron over the phone on Sunday, discussing ways to resolve the current tensions in Europe. The talk will take place amid a flare-up in eastern Ukraine, where Kiev and the country’s two breakaway regions are accusing each other of multiple ceasefire violations. The self-proclaimed republics in Donetsk and Lugansk started evacuating civilians to Russia on Friday.
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