War in Ukraine: If Russia were accidentally hit by Russian missiles, conflict with NATO could threaten (Interview) – REFRESHER

Following Russia’s recent invasion of Ukraine, Europe has ceased to be a continent of peace. Slovakia, as Ukraine’s western neighbor, is only a few hundred kilometers away from the fighting of Ukrainian and Russian soldiers.

Is our country at risk in the current situation? Is a new Iron Curtain emerging in Ukraine as in the Cold War? And when could an open war between NATO and Russia take place? We talked about the current topic with political scientist and historian Juraj Marušiak.

Juraj Marušiak is a Slovak historian, political scientist and expert on the modern history of Central and Eastern Europe. He currently works as an independent researcher at the Institute of Political Science of the Slovak Academy of Sciences. In his studies, he deals with the countries of Eastern and Central Europe, including Ukraine, Belarus and Russia.

The editorial staff of Refresher has long covered the issue of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, which it has recently become open war. We follow current events every day minute by minute livewe talk about them with a number of experts, people of Ukraine and we monitor the situation as well on the border with Ukraine. You can support our work as a member Refresher +.

In the current situation, people are constantly asking why NATO will not come to Ukraine’s aid directly militarily. Can you explain to our readers why this is so?

First of all, because Ukraine is not a member of NATO. It is not covered by the Alliance’s security guarantees. Secondly, it is important that Russia has no reason to intervene more radically. Vladimir Putin was already threatening to use non-standard means in the event of NATO intervention when the aggression against Ukraine was unleashed. This could also be read as a possible use of nuclear weapons against NATO nations. The Alliance has no interest in turning the war in Ukraine into a world war. And in this respect, NATO’s capabilities are therefore severely limited.

I am afraid that Ukraine is already in this. Unfortunately, after more than 30 years, a new iron curtain is being created here.

So could at least individual countries and not NATO as a whole intervene militarily? For example, if only Britain or the United States sent its troops to Ukraine.

They could, but that would mean a direct confrontation between the nuclear powers. And virtually every NATO nation has tried to avoid this since the end of World War II.

So, in your opinion, Ukraine will be left alone militarily and a frozen conflict and a new Iron Curtain will emerge, as Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky said yesterday?