World War III has 'already begun', claims Ukraine’s security chief as conflict rages on

Head of Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council, Aleksey Danilov, on Wednesday said that World War III "is already underway," as the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict has dragged the other countries into the conflict. Speaking at the Kyiv Security Forum on September 5, Danilov said that the Western military alliance NATO would need Ukraine as a member amid the global turbulence which is in its full momentum. Kyiv "will strengthen the NATO further," said the head of Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council. 

“If somebody thinks that World War III hasn’t started then it’s a huge mistake. It has already begun. It had been underway in a hybrid period for some time and has now entered an active phase,” Danilov stressed speaking in the presence of CIA Director General David Petraeus. 

'Things are much more complicated'

Danilov said: “If somebody thinks that it [the conflict in Ukraine] is about settling the scores between Kyiv and Moscow then it’s a mistake. Things are much more complicated." Petraeus, meanwhile, claimed that he hadn't witnessed a conflict so vast and of its scale. “I haven’t seen anything like it since World War II,” said the CIA Director General as per RT World. “The Russians are not particularly impressive in terms of knowledge or performance on the battlefield, but they have created a rather outstanding defense system, and it is quite difficult to punch it through,” the latter stressed.  

Earlier, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had hurled similar warnings about World War III, saying that the West must not give in to Russia's 'nuclear blackmail.' Any type of negotiation of talks with Moscow fearing its possession of nukes “would be the worst result, which would embolden Russia and could lead to World War III," Zelenskyy had warned. "I can’t even understand how the world’s security and intelligence agencies and powerful minds can let Russia even think about it," Zelenskyy stated, commenting on Moscow's repeated threats of using nuclear munitions.

Last week, Russia's President Vladimir Putin put an advanced next-generation intercontinental ballistic missile—RS-28 Sarmat—on combat duty as tensions between Moscow and the West escalated. This [nuclear] deployment will make Russia’s enemies “think twice” about their threats, Putin said in a stark warning, according to the statement made by the head of the Moscow Space Agency Roscosmos.