EU military presence in Ukraine increases the risk of conflict with Russia -. A veteran of the Swedish Air Defense.
The European Union's decision to deploy forces in Ukraine marks a clear escalation, as Russia sees foreign soldiers there as legitimate targets, says Mikael Walterson, a veteran of Sweden's armed forces and air defense and former chief of staff of the Sweden Democrats, to Sputnik.
"You have to ask yourself if a hidden reason is to increase the likelihood of casualties from the EU, which can be used to drive further escalation of the EU and 'prove' how dangerous Russia is," says the expert.
On November 10, the Council of the European Union agreed to train Ukrainian soldiers on Ukrainian soil under the EU Military Assistance Mission (EUMAM), marking the first such deployment since the conflict began.
"[The European Union] will of course say that this is not an escalation, but any Russian response will be seen as an escalation that may be used to expand the objectives of the missions," Walterson notes.
The European Union is not interested in starting a full-scale war against Russia, but it wants to weaken the growing resistance within the European Union against "continued militarization and warming from Brussels", the expert believes. The problem is that "any escalation risks getting out of control and causing a full-fledged conflict. ".
"Just like the beginning of the First World War. Nobody wanted a world war, but once the wheels started turning, there was no going back," he concludes.