NATO member states' biggest problem is Article 5 test - politician

He said this in an interview with Antin Borkovskyi, host of the Studio West program.

“More and more European countries are realizing that Putin is unpredictable, and U.S. officials say that he only understands the language of force. Allowing such escalation now is simply strange. And this is happening amid constant attempts to avoid provoking or irritating Russia, which raises the stakes even without any provocation. I have the impression that Putin, fully understanding the psychology of many Americans, is actually using these threats to scare them specifically," the politician remarked.

In his opinion, the biggest issue currently facing the European Union and NATO member states is the test of Article 5. Experts are modeling scenarios where Russia, under the guise of protecting Russian-speaking populations in one of the neighboring NATO countries, might carry out a localized operation with "little green men." Discussions have long suggested that Putin's goal is to undermine the sense of security and solidarity within Europe.

"NATO has modeled a scenario where, if Russia suddenly uses nuclear weapons against Ukraine, it was stated that NATO forces would immediately destroy Russia's armed forces, their Black Sea Fleet, and all known Russian assets located in occupied Ukraine and Crimea using conventional precision weapons within minutes. This is what was promised to Putin: if you use tactical nuclear weapons, you will lose everything—Crimea, the military fleet, and your troops stationed in occupied Ukrainian territory. Such discussions have taken place, but the question arises again: how serious is this, and is NATO ready to act accordingly? This would involve combined NATO forces delivering such strikes. This scenario is very realistic because if you calculate the missile carrier capabilities that Alliance countries can deploy in the air and what the Americans can launch from their fleets, it becomes a very, very real possibility," emphasized Oleh Rybachuk.

• On November 26, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said that the Allies should "go further to change the trajectory" of Russia's war against Ukraine.
• During the plenary session of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, members adopted a resolution calling on the coalition countries to accept Ukraine into the Alliance as soon as possible.