Former Ukraine PM to Newsmax: WWIII Has Begun; West Needs Strong Leaders

Western leaders need to stop worrying about triggering World War III by upsetting Russian President Vladimir Putin and realize that World War III has already begun, Oleksiy Honcharuk, former prime minister of Ukraine, tells Newsmax.

When Putin decided to invade and annex Crimea from Ukraine eight years ago, and then invade the eastern Donbas region, he saw a weak response from the West, Honcharuk said Thursday on "Eric Bolling: The Balance."

"For Mr. Putin, the Western world, democracy is a victim," Honcharuk said via computer from Ukraine. "And that's why Putin started this war, because he realized that [the] West will not do enough to stop him."

Ukrainians, who are under constant attack, including civilians, understand that existing economic sanctions aren't enough to stop Putin, he said.

"Just realize it's a full-scale war when the biggest country in the world attacked [the] biggest country in Europe," he said.

Russian leaders, such as Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who have said that Ukraine is not being invaded by Russia and that no other countries will be either, are "living in the absolutely fake parallel world," Honcharuk said. "We realize that they will invade other countries. If we will not stop them here in Ukraine, they will invade Moldova, they will invade Georgia, they even will invade Baltics … they will invade Finland, maybe even Sweden."

Russia will attack anyone who supports and shares the values of the free world because Putin's war is not against Ukraine, Honcharuk said: "It's a war against democracy, and the Ukrainian nation is only a symbol of the free people."

Putin sees freedom as the main threat and wants to destroy Ukrainians because they represent democracy on his border, threatening his leadership, the former Ukrainian official said.

"He wants to destroy us Ukrainians. He wants to solve [the] Ukrainian question like Hitler wanted to solve [the] Jewish question," he said. "Because of our civilization … we choose democracy, we choose freedom. That's why it's not our war. It's already a start of this third world war."

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