Putin puppet claims NATO plotting ‘large-scale conflict’ as tensions soar | World | News

Vladimir Putin’s intelligence chief has claimed that NATO is preparing for a “large-scale conflict in the east”. Sergei Naryshkin, head of Russia’s SVR foreign intelligence service, claimed that the alliance was preparing for such an action.

Anne Keast-Butler told GCHQ’s inaugural annual conference that Russia was “relentlessly targeting critical infrastructure, democratic processes, supply chains and public trust”.

Mr Naryshkin also said the European Union was rapidly arming and becoming a military alliance “directed against Russia”, according to the RIA news agency.

Ukraine is calling on the EU to help negotiate an end to a large-scale war that has raged for more than four years.

The EU will “never” be a neutral mediator between Moscow and Kiev, the bloc’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on Thursday.

“Because we stand with Ukraine and defend our own core security interests,” he said.

“We cannot be neutral, treating them equally, because we were clearly on the side of Ukraine.”

He said EU foreign ministers were determined that “all our efforts must be complementary to US efforts”.

“We are not replacing the United States, but we are actually addressing issues that they are not addressing in these talks,” he added.

US-led negotiations to end the war have been on hold since the Iran war broke out in February.

A French foreign ministry spokesman said Europe should participate in talks between Russia and Ukraine because “its own interests are at stake”.

He said Mr Putin was “going backwards on the battlefield” as analysis showed the pace of Russia’s advance was slowing and Ukrainian forces began gaining more ground than they lost for the first time since 2023.

This was echoed by Ms. Kallas, who told reporters that “the dynamics of the war have changed in Ukraine’s favor.”

“Russia is in the background militarily, economically and also diplomatically, but as the recent attacks on Kiev show, Russia still does not show any real interest in peace, which was also the clear view of ministers today.” he said.