Moscow ready for any scenario if NATO puts boots on ground in Ukraine

Russia is ready for any and all potential developments in a scenario where the West dared to dispatch a NATO expeditionary force to Ukraine, Russian delegate Oleg Bushuyev said at talks in Vienna dedicated to military security and arms control issues.

"Military strategists in Washington and Brussels should recognize that, if by removing the taboo on sending the alliance’s regular troops to Ukraine, who would de facto be interventionists, they would seek to test how tough our country is, [then they should know that] we are ready for any scenario," the diplomat said at a meeting of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) on security cooperation.

According to him, "the increasing involvement" of the West in the armed confrontation "may result in a direct military conflict between nuclear powers, which would bring catastrophic consequences, and they [the West] would be responsible for it."