US and NATO on path to full-fledged military conflict in Europe – Moscow

America’s “reckless neo-colonialist expansionist policy” has put Europe and possibly the world on the brink of a devastating conflict, Russia’s deputy envoy to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) has warned. Continued escalation of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine could spiral into an all-out war that would see no victors, Maksim Buyakevich told the OSCE Permanent Council on Thursday.

“The leaders of the US and their NATO client states have come close to a red line,” the diplomat warned, citing the US and other western nations’ plans to send dozens of modern battle tanks to Kiev. Buyakevich accused Washington and its allies of “deliberately escalating the military standoff” in Ukraine and of provoking Kiev into “military action against the Russian population.”

“This is a straight path into a full-blown conflict in Europe, which absolutely all people living on our continent definitely stand to lose from,” the Russian diplomat warned. He also said that the US and the UK, which he described as the “puppet masters” of the ongoing escalation, would hardly be able to “sit it out” either.

The latest decisions on new armed deliveries for Ukraine taken by Western nations only mire them “deeper involved in the armed standoff with Russian troops,” Buyakevich said. These decisions could result in further escalation and more intense warfare, which would only lead to more civilian victims and further destruction, he added.

The diplomat also accused the “collective West” of turning Ukraine into an “instrument for realizing their geopolitical plans,” adding that the ongoing conflict between Moscow and Kiev was a result of the Western-backed 2014 Maidan coup.

Buyakevich also blamed the US and its “longstanding ambitions for global domination” for the current European security crisis. “The logic of the OSCE principle of indivisibility of security consistently dictates that either there is security for all [OSCE] member states or there is no security for any of them,” the diplomat said, adding that the principle had been violated and this collective security had been lost.

Earlier this week, both the US and Germany announced plans to send modern Western tanks to Ukraine. Other NATO nations have already voiced similar intentions. Russia responded by saying that NATO’s “direct involvement” in the conflict in Ukraine was “growing.” Moscow previously warned that the West’s continued arms supplies to Kiev risked a direct military conflict between Russia and NATO.