Defense Minister Guido Crosetto reiterates that Italy has no intention of following Emmanuel Macron on the hypothesis of involving its soldiers in Ukraine to slow down the Russian advance. But to the Messaggero he makes it clear once again what is really at stake: «It is a moment that has no similar precedent in recent history. If we have to look for examples that resemble them – says Crosetto – well they had dramatic results: the two world wars”.
For Europe, therefore, the concrete risk is a conflict with Russia, which at a certain point is inevitable if, as the minister fears, Putin does not stop: «If the Russians were to capture the Ukrainian capital, a dramatic clash would arise. And we would have the total denial of those who, even here, repeat: well, Russia has its reasons too and basically only wanted the two regions where Russian is spoken.” On Putin’s true intentions, Crosetto makes it clear: «Unfortunately I fear that Putin wants all of Ukraine and furthermore no one assures us that he will stop at Ukraine. It is clear that he has an international order in mind, in which whoever is stronger, if and when he wants, takes over the other nations.”
Crosetto is convinced that Macron’s line cannot be followed to stop Putin, because otherwise «we risk reaching the point of no return. The same thing we will have if Putin also targets the Baltic countries and Poland, which is not at all impossible. At that point NATO would have the obligation, sanctioned by Article 5 of the Atlantic Pact, to take a military stand alongside the internal NATO country that is being attacked.” And at that point Italy would inevitably be involved in the conflict. But how likely can this scenario be? Crosetto says: «I am still inclined to think that Putin is not a total madman. I hope I’m not wrong. In short, I hope that it does not happen that Russia goes beyond the follies that it has implemented in the last two years. That said, I repeat that ex-Soviet troops arriving in Kiev would be a totally destabilizing element for Europe and the world. And they would inevitably lead to a clash with other nations that would not accept Russian tanks at the border.”
