Russian State TV: ‘Ukraine War Nearly Over, WW III Is About to Start'

A threat of an upcoming World War was declared by a leading TV presenter Olga Skabeyeva on Russian state TV.

During her show 60 Minutes aired on Rossiya-1, Olga Skabeyeva, one of the most loyal TV presenters in Russian media often referred to as the "Iron Doll of Putin's TV", suggested that it was "time to announce the nearing end" of what she described as the "special operation in Ukraine", saying that such an announcement "will pave the way for a third world war."

Olga Skabeyeva, who strongly supports the Russian invasion of Ukraine, calling it an operation to "protect people in Donbas from a Nazi regime", said on her show that even though the Russian army is "successfully destroying military aid supplies sent by NATO allies to Ukraine, the Russians will not be able to achieve victory unless they fight the whole military alliance and demilitarize it". 

"I have some unpleasant news... Even though we are methodically destroying the weapons that are being delivered [to Ukraine], but the quantities in which the United States are sending them force us to come up with some global conclusions. Perhaps it’s time to acknowledge that maybe Russia’s special operation in Ukraine has come to an end, in a sense that a real war had started: WWIII. We’re forced to conduct the demilitarization not only of Ukraine, but of the entire NATO alliance." - Olga Skabeyeva

Skabeyeva's remarks noted that such an "inevitable" decision of expanding the military offensive will mean a direct global confrontation, one she called "a third world war".

Discussions with her guests; Russian lawmaker Oleg Morozov and official in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Vladimir Avatkov went on to highlight the support the Ukrainian military is receiving from Western allies, namely the United States and the United Kingdom, recalling Vladimir Putin's words vowing that countries "interfering" in the Russian invasion of Ukraine "will pay a heavy price" as a result.

The TV talk also hinted that Poland could be the next target of Russian operations, saying that "Polish borders with Ukraine will be worthless if Poland offers military support for Ukraine".

Warnings to Poland come at a time another Russian official claimed that the east European country "is moving to seize territory in western Ukraine", without providing evidence for his claims, raising fears of Russian potential plans to extend their invasion to Poland.

Moreover, Morozov made an unusual threat to NATO defense ministers visiting Kyiv, saying the Russians could "kidnap" one of them, bring them to Moscow, and reveal Western "orders" given to Ukraine. 

Online reactions to the Russian talk show expressed fears of possible Russian plans to expand the war to other European countries, while others cast doubts over the seriousness of such threats, deeming it as "part of the war propaganda".

Some commentators also suggested that such statements were carefully designed to justify the failure in achieving the invasion's announced goals.