Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman, Dmitry Medvedev, warned that any attempted attack on Crimea will be considered a declaration of war against Russia, and subsequently could ignite a third world war if the attempt is conducted by a NATO member.

In an interview with the Argumenty i Fakty newspaper, Medvedev said "Any attempt to encroach on Crimea is a declaration of war on our country. And if this is done by a country that is a NATO member, this means a conflict with the entire North Atlantic alliance. World War III. Total disaster," discussing the effects of Ukraine's possible accession to NATO.

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US proxy war on Russia

Ahead of this week's NATO summit, a senior administration official gave a preview of the summit and predicted that alliance members "will announce new force posture commitments to strengthen NATO's defense and deterrent posture," adding that “As we have seen in the last number of months, the United States was very quick to surge additional forces to NATO to reassure our allies, especially those on the eastern flank.”

Administration officials disclosed that both the US and NATO allies might announce changes to troop distributions. An official also said that Biden might announce increases to US troops in Spain’s Naval Station in Rota adding two more ships to the Naval base in the next few years.

Furthermore, NATO allies will beef up some of their battle group deployments along NATO's eastern flank "up to brigade level" – tactical units of several thousand troops – and increase high readiness numbers to "well over 300,000," according to NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg.

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