After Ukraine, the Kremlin’s next targets could be Moldova and the Baltic countries, Belgian army chief Michel Hofman has warned.
“Europe must urgently prepare and make it clear that it can defend itself” and that “it will … counterattack if necessary,” said Hofman, who is the chief of defense of the Belgian armed forces.
Ukraine has been fending off Putin’s full-scale invasion, which began in February 2022 and shows no signs of abating despite fierce resistance from Kyiv’s forces.
Even if Moscow’s forces seem weakened at the moment due to their ongoing war against Ukraine, this weakness is “temporary,” he said.
It has functioned as an unrecognized state since the fall of the USSR, keeping its Soviet-era hammer and sickle flag and using Russian as its official language.
To the Kremlin’s west, the Baltic countries are protected by NATO’s common defense clause — and an attack by Putin’s troops on Estonia, Latvia or Lithuania could trigger a wider conflict.
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