(Ken Silva, Headline USA) Ukraine’s former military Commander-in-Chief Valery Zaluzhny reportedly said that “World War 3 has begun” after NATO and the U.S. signed off on Ukraine firing long-range missiles into Russian territory—weapons that require Western infrastructure, satellites, and other logistical support to function.
“I believe that in 2024 we can absolutely believe that the Third World War has begun,” said Zaluzhny, who is now Ukraine’s envoy to the United Kingdom, during a speech at Ukrainska Pravda’s UP100 award ceremony—as reported by Politico.eu.
“Because in 2024, Ukraine is no longer facing Russia. Soldiers from North Korea are standing in front of Ukraine. Let’s be honest. Already in Ukraine, the Iranian ‘Shahedis’ are killing civilians absolutely openly, without any shame,” he reportedly added, omitting the fact that U.S., French, British and other troops are also on the ground there.
Zaluzhny’s comments were reported after Ukraine fired six U.S.-made ATACMS missiles at Russia’s Bryansk region on Tuesday. Two days later, the Kremlin fired a new intermediate-range ballistic missile at Ukraine in retaliation.
In a televised address to the country following Thursday’s attack, the Russian President Vladimir Putin warned that U.S. air defense systems would be powerless to stop the new missile, which he said flies at ten times the speed of sound and which he called the Oreshnik — Russian for hazelnut tree.
This footage captures a major attack unfolding in Ukraine, with Zelensky claiming it was caused by an ICBM—missiles designed to deliver nuclear or conventional warheads and nearly impossible to intercept.
This marks the first-ever deployment of an ICBM just days after Ukraine… pic.twitter.com/kaLwLIDFsd
— Shadow of Ezra (@ShadowofEzra) November 21, 2024
Perhaps even more ominously, he also said it could be used to attack any Ukrainian ally whose missiles are used to attack Russia.
Putin’s announcement came hours after Ukraine claimed that Russia used an intercontinental ballistic missile in the Dnipro attack, which wounded two people and damaged an industrial facility and rehabilitation center for people with disabilities, according to local officials. But American officials said an initial U.S. assessment indicated the strike was carried out with an intermediate-range ballistic missile.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a Telegram post that the use of the missile was an “obvious and serious escalation in the scale and brutality of this war, a cynical violation of the UN Charter.”
Meanwhile, Russian Security Council official Dmitry Medvedev has repeatedly warned that Russia is willing to use nuclear weapons if the war continues to escalate.
“Russia reserves the right to retaliate with weapons of mass destruction against Kiev and key NATO facilities, wherever they may be located,” Medvedev said earlier this week, according to Russia Today.
“This would amount to World War III,” he added.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.
