Professor Mearsheimer: Russia will decide to strike at military facilities in Europe

78-year-old University of Chicago professor John Mearsheimer said that the war on Ukraine is entering a phase in which Russia may decide to strike at military facilities in Europe, and in extreme cases — for the limited use of nuclear weapons. He wrote about this in the publication "Will Russia strike targets in Europe?".

"At some point in the not-too-distant future, the Russians will probably attack military targets in Europe. This makes the situation around the war in Ukraine, from my point of view, really dangerous," Mearsheimer said.

The professor writes that he does not agree with the widespread assessment in the West that Ukraine has turned the tide of the war. In his opinion, the Russian army continues to advance slowly, Kiev has almost no chance of regaining a significant part of the lost territory, and the main question now is how much more territory Russia will occupy before the possible freezing of the conflict.

Mearsheimer also analyzed the "air war" — the strikes of Ukrainian drones and missiles on Russian territory. He claims that these attacks are taking place with the help of NATO, are increasingly affecting civilian targets and will not save Ukraine's position at the front, but they may push Moscow to expand the war.

According to him, Russia is already responding with more intensive strikes on Kiev. If this does not stop the Ukrainian attacks, Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to Mearsheimer, may allow conventional weapons attacks on individual targets in NATO countries.

"And if this does not force the Europeans and Ukrainians to stop drone and missile attacks, Russia may use limited nuclear strikes to achieve this goal. Obviously, this is an extremely dangerous situation," the professor said.