Russia Warns Ukraine Plans to Draw U.S. Into 'World War III' After Setbacks

In comments shared with Newsweek, Russia's ambassador to the United States dismissed media reports suggesting that Moscow was planning a false-flag provocation at Europe's largest nuclear power plant, located in Ukraine, and alleged that Kyiv was using the narrative to draw NATO into a devastating conflict.

With Ukrainian officials expressing frustration over the pace of the country's counteroffensive against Russian forces, Ambassador Anatoly Antonov appealed to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's international supporters to prevent an escalation.

"We call on the curators of the Kiev regime to exercise responsibility and exert influence on their 'wards' in order to avoid a large-scale catastrophe," Antonov told Newsweek. "Western ruling elites should understand that the failures on the battlefield make Kiev eager to create a pretext for the deployment of the NATO contingent to Ukraine, thereby to inflate a regional conflict into World War III."