Ukraine wants a ‘NATO-esque’ bloc which can be called upon to immediately defend borders with Russia, which was proposed by a working group established by President Volodymyr Zelensky. Crucially it would include the United States and other NATO allies providing Ukraine with “security guarantees”.  Kiev officials stressed in unveiling the plan Tuesday that it’s not meant as a replacement for NATO, but as a legally binding alliance to be in place while Ukraine eventually pursues full NATO membership, as Newsweek describes of the proposal:

The Kyiv Security Compact (KSC)—proposed by Andriy Yermak, the head of Zelensky’s office, and former NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen—would also establish a “multi-decade” plan of investment, military training, and intelligence sharing to bolster Ukraine’s defensive capabilities as the country pursues full NATO membership.

The Kremlin’s reaction has been swift and fierce, with Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of Russia Dmitry Medvedev warning that it is “really a prologue to the Third World War” if it gets enacted. He described that nuclear holocaust would be the end result.

According to a translation of Medvedev’s reaction in state media, which had been posted in a statement to Telegram, he blamed “dull idiots” from “stupid think tanks” for concocting such a “hysterical appeal”. Medvedev wrote:

“And then the Western nations will not be able to sit in their clean homes, laughing at how they carefully weaken Russia by proxy. Everything will be on fire around them. Their people will harvest their grief in full. The land will be on fire and the concrete will melt.“

“Yet still the narrow-minded politicians and their stupid think tanks, thoughtfully twirling a glass of wine in their hands, talk about how they can handle us without waging a direct war. Dull idiots with a classical education.”

He said that already the conflict in Ukraine is sliding into unknown, unpredictable territory of escalation due to the West’s “unrestrained pumping of the Kiev regime with the most dangerous types of weapons.”

He added to the statements as follows according to a translation:

The Kyiv camarilla gave birth to a project of “security guarantees”, which are a prologue to the third world war. Of course, no one will give any “guarantees” to the Ukrainian Nazis. After all, this is almost the same as applying Article 5 of the North Atlantic Pact (Washington Treaty) to Ukraine. For NATO – the same shit, only a side view. Therefore, it’s scary.

Ukraine will seek security guarantees from allies like those Israel gets from the US: no intervention, but commitment to arms, intelligence, funding and training. @MedvedevRussiaE reacted by threatening with a nuclear holocaust https://t.co/IrBmIA7TSJ via @WSJ

— Bojan Pancevski (@bopanc) September 13, 2022

Given the grinding conflict which is still focused in the east and south of the country, and with Moscow having vowed to “liberate” the Donbass, the security guarantees being proposed are unlikely to get off the ground anytime soon, given also it calls for a return to Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders and a return of all homes and property confiscated by the invading Russian forces.

Many pundits in the West are meanwhile expressing concern that amid a largely successful Ukrainian counteroffensive in the northeast Russia could grow more unpredictable and desperate. There’s ongoing speculation that President Putin could declare a formal declaration of war, something which the Kremlin on Tuesday denied there is even discussion of at this point.

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