VLADIMIR Putin will attack Europe in the next wave of invasion and seize territory if he wins the bloody Ukraine war, a top human rights chief has warned.
Nobel Prize winner Oleksandra Matviichuk told The Sun that the world order has begun to collapse and Europe is only safe until Kyiv continues to fight against Russian aggression.
One of the biggest features of Putin’s rule in Russia has been his expansionist attitude towards Europe.
And it’s feared the megalomaniac dictator may not stop at Ukraine and could attack European countries, which could draw the West into a direct war and plunge the world into a crisis.
Military experts and diplomatic leaders have previously warned Putin could quickly launch a Hitler-style land grab and attack the Baltics region.
Oleksandra Matviichuk, who won 2022 the Nobel Peace Prize as the head of the Center for Civil Liberties, said Europe needs to get “real security guarantees” to prevent a potential attack from Russia.
She told The Sun: “People in the European Union are safe only because the Ukrainians continue to fight and resistance against the Russian aggression.
“Empires want to expand and Russia is no different. There are a lot of talks about possible peace agreements because of Donald Trump.
“But we know for sure that Russia doesn’t want peace. Russia wants to achieve its geopolitical goal.
“So we need to get real security guarantees, which will deter Russia from the next wave of invasion.”
The human rights defence revealed how the Russians have begun to envision a future where they attack and capture other independent nations.
She added: “I interviewed hundreds of people who survived Russian captivity. They were told by Russians, ‘First, we occupy Ukraine and then together with we go to conquer other countries and enlist Ukrainians in the Russian army.'”
Matviichuk thinks that it is time for the West to take responsibility for the Ukraine war and to act more.
She said: “The world order as we know is collapsing before our eyes.
“UN bodies like the Security Council have failed and can’t protect people against the libertarians and the wars.
“So in times of crisis, when the international system is not working, the individual leadership, individual courage, individual responsibility matter, and it’s time to take it.”
General David Petraeus, who served nearly four decades in the US military, previously told The Sun that Ukraine’s allies in the West must do more to help win the war against Putin.
The Retired four-star US general added that Putin “won’t be satisfied to stop with Ukraine”.
He said: “The Ukraine war could expand in the region if Putin succeeds in Ukraine.
“He wouldn’t be satisfied to stop with Ukraine. Moldova clearly would be next.
“After that, it might be Lithuania or one of the other Baltic states.
“He’s been very clear and I think it’s also clear in hindsight that we should listen to this individual. He tells us what he believes.”
To defeat Vlad, the West must do “everything humanly possible” to help Ukraine, Petraeus urged.
NEXT STOP EUROPE
Keir Giles, Russia expert at Chatham House, said he is convinced Putin will not stop at Ukraine and will threaten to attack the West in the next five years.
Mr Keir, who has authored Who Will Defend Europe, said: “It is striking that the assessments of Putin’s next moves that we hear from defence ministers, chiefs of defence, and intelligence chiefs across Europe and the US all say Putin will look to attack the West.
“If the situation in Ukraine is resolved or becomes more stable, whether it’s through Russian victory or potentially even a ceasefire, then Putin’s next target is one of the NATO countries and the timescales that have been put on that range between one and 5 years.
“Putin’s future is war with NATO, for which, of course, he’s spent his entire time in office preparing.”
President of Latvia Edgars Rinkevics previously told the Sun how Putin will not stop at Ukraine and has set his sights on three targets to rebuild the Russian empire.
He said the “first targets” of Putin’s mission to rebuild the Soviet empire would be to conquer Moldova and the Caucasus and Central Asia regions.
This sweeping Hitler-style land grab could include countries such as Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia as well as Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan – all of which are sustained targets of Russian influence.
The security order of Europe will be threatened for “years if not decades to come,” Rinkevics warned.
He previously told The Sun that Putin’s war against Ukraine – and potentially Europe in the next few years – marks his attempt to “revive Russian imperialism”.
CRIMINAL PUTIN
Matviichuk has been documenting international war crimes under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
When the large-scale war started in Ukraine, Matviichuk and her team united their efforts with dozens of organizations from different regions.
So far, she has documented more than 80,000 episodes of Russian war crimes.
Matviichuk said: “I prefer to see Putin in the Hague. Because when authoritarian regimes collapse, the leaders who see themselves as untouchable can appear under the court.
“Dictators, when they have the power with all this repressive state machine, they look powerful. But when they appeared under the court, they looked miserable.
“And I think that we deserve to see the real face of Putin when he faces the criminal accountability.”
Who is Oleksandra Matviichuk?
Oleksandra Viacheslavivna Matviichuk is a Ukrainian human rights lawyer and civil society leader based in Kyiv.
She heads the non-profit organization Centre for Civil Liberties and is a campaigner for democratic reforms in her country and the OSCE region.
The activities of the Center for Civil Liberties are aimed at protecting human rights and establishing democracy in Ukraine and the OSCE region.
The organisation is developing legislative changes, exercises public oversight over law enforcement agencies and judiciary, conducts educational activities for young people and implements international solidarity programs.
After the beginning of new armed aggression in February 2022, Matviichuk together with other partners created the ‘Tribunal for Putin’ initiative to document international crimes under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court in all regions of Ukraine which became the targets of attacks of the Russian Federation.
Center for Civil Liberties, which Matviichuk is head of, received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022.
