A former CIA boss has opened up about which NATO country he fears Russia will invade next if they are successful in Ukraine.
Russia's full invasion of Ukraine began on 24 February 2022, and the conflict is still rumbling on today.
While peace talks have been hinted at a number of times, both countries are struggling to find common ground.
Ukraine has held strong against the Russian invasion, but in the event that they were to fall, the aggressors could turn their heads to a different country.
That’s the chilling warning from David Petraeus, a former US general and CIA director, who believes the Kremlin could make its next move on a NATO country, per the Daily Mail.
Speaking at the Policy Exchange think-tank in London, Petraeus laid it all out. “Russia's aim was to topple President Volodymyr Zelensky in order to 'install a puppet leader and to control all of Ukraine',” he said.
And if that plan succeeds?
“Once that's done, you are going to see them focus on one of the Baltic states,” he continued. “Lithuania has featured prominently in his speeches, and we should have listened a lot more.”
According to Petraeus, Russia could launch an incursion into Lithuania to “test Western resolve or as a precursor to a wider offensive.”
Petraeus didn’t hold back when it came to criticizing the U.S. approach to Ukraine. He blasted both current and former administrations, accusing them of acting too slowly and timidly when it came to supplying arms.
“What we've seen is three incidences where the US President has threatened that in two weeks we'll have to take a different approach. We'll see this time what actually happens,” he said.
He went further, slamming the delay in arming Ukraine: “The US also temporised far too long over individual decisions such as M1 [Abrams] tanks. A blind man on a dark night could see it had to be the F-16 [a multi-role fighter aircraft]. There were no more MiGs anywhere in Europe we could provide them [the Ukrainians] with, it had to be F-16s.”
He continued: “The same with multiple-launch rocket systems, the improved conventional munitions and lifting the limits [on their use].”
“This was very unhelpful to the Ukrainians. Each time they'd have to ask and wait, and then we'd say no, and then maybe, and then eventually they'd get it," he continued.
"We should have done so much with the Ukrainians that they could change the dynamic on the battlefield to show Moscow they cannot achieve additional gains on the battlefield at an acceptable cost, knowing what is acceptable to them is quite astronomical.”
Petraeus also urged the UK to drop its restrictions on cluster munitions, arguing that “these weapons could prove an essential deterrent.”
Donald Trump’s envoy to Kyiv isn’t exactly pushing back on Russia’s rhetoric either.
Retired General Keith Kellogg, a key Trump adviser, told ABC News that Russia’s concerns over NATO expansion were valid: “It’s a fair concern,” he said, referring to a Reuters report that Russia wanted a written pledge about NATO not enlarging eastwards.
“We've said that to us, Ukraine coming into Nato is not on the table, and we're not the only country that says that - you know I could probably give you four other countries in NATO and it takes 32 of the 32 to allow you to come in to NATO,” Kellogg said.
“That's one of the issues that Russia will bring up. They're not just talking Ukraine, they're talking the country of Georgia, they're talking Moldova.”
Despite those comments, Kellogg noted that Trump had become “frustrated” with Putin, saying he’d seen “a level of unreasonableness” from the Russian president.
Kellogg didn’t hold back in condemning the war either, blasting Russia for “striking Ukrainian cities” and confirming that he told Ukraine to “turn up to talks.”
According to him, the combined number of dead and injured from both sides in the conflict is a staggering 1.2 million.