Lavrov made the remarks on Wednesday while speaking to students and staff at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO) in response to Polish proposals for a NATO and international “peace mission.”

“Our Polish colleagues have already stated that there will be a NATO summit now, we need to send peacekeepers. I hope they understand what is at stake,” Lavrov said, according to Russian state-owned news agency TASS.

“This will be the direct clash between the Russian and NATO armed forces that everyone has not only tried to avoid but said should not take place in principle,” the foreign minister said.

The comments came amid the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, which has seen NATO members provide humanitarian and military aid to the country while imposing harsh sanctions on Russia.

On March 15, Jarosław Kaczyński, leader of Poland’s ruling party, called for NATO peacekeepers to be sent to Ukraine.

“I think that it is necessary to have a peace mission – NATO, possibly some wider international structure—but a mission that will be able to defend itself, which will operate on Ukrainian territory,” Kaczyński said at a news conference.

“It will be a mission that will strive for peace, to give humanitarian aid, but at the same time it will also be protected by appropriate forces, armed forces,” he said.

The following day, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said his country would propose a peacekeeping force at the next NATO summit.

The U.S. and NATO have previously ruled out imposing a no-fly zone over Ukraine despite repeated requests from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky because of concerns about a potential confrontation between NATO and Russian forces.

President Joe Biden has also ruled out U.S. troops on the ground in Ukraine and it remains unclear how NATO leaders will approach the Polish proposal.

The Russian foreign minister also suggested on Wednesday that the Polish government may want to “make headquarters” in the Ukrainian city of Lviv and “stay there.”

“Why not, they had such thoughts, and not only thoughts, this was in the past,” Lavrov said.

Lviv is about 40 miles from the Polish border and was once part of Poland before the German and Soviet invasion of the country in 1939. It was occupied by Germany during World War II, after which it became part of the Soviet Union

Newsweek has asked NATO for comment.

Source: https://www.newsweek.com/russia-warning-direct-clash-nato-peacekeepers-ukraine-1690935

The post Russia Warns of Direct Clash with NATO If Peacekeepers Sent to Ukraine first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

“There are 700,000 illegal migrants—they need to go home,” the Czech Prime Minister told The Guardian.

Babiš, along with leaders from Poland and Hungary, is against a European Union plan to spend more than $11 billion on Frontex, the EU’s border and coast guard agency. The proposed plan would allow for the agency to increase the number of border officers from 1,500 to 10,000. Babiš, however, says that the EU should instead invest in a strategy similar to the Marshall Plan, which would convince likely migrants to stay in Africa.

Czech Republic’s Prime Minister Andrej Babiš arrives at the European Council in Brussels, on October 18. Babiš said on Wednesday that 700,000 “illegal migrants” should go back to their home countries.EMMANUEL DUNAND/AFP/GETTY

“These people should stay home and we should help them in Africa. The people around Syria…they would like to return home. Smugglers made €5.7 billion ($6.5 billion) in 2016 and we have to stop it. They have their culture, we have our culture. They have their values, but we want to keep [our] values, Babiš told The Guardian.

The businessman turned politician said that instead of providing more money and expanding Frontex, countries should be individually charged with protecting their borders.

The Czech prime minister joined Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki at Frontex’s headquarters in Warsaw last week where the pair reiterated their opposition to enlarging the agency, saying that such a move would endanger the sovereignty of individual countries and reduce the amount of funding provided for infrastructure.

“We worry that more money for Frontex will mean less money for structural funds, less money for road or railway development,” Morawiecki said, according to Euractiv.

“We central European parties want to finally catch up to the quality of life enjoyed by Western Europe. That’s the point of the structural funds,” he continued.

Babiš made his views on migration known when he refused to take in a portion of around 450 migrants rescued at sea in July, saying that taking in more migrants was a “road to hell” for Europe, adding that the bloc needed to send a clear message that it would no longer accept migrants.

More than 94,000 migrants have arrived in Europe by sea since January, according to the United Nations International Organization for Migration. This is a significantly lower amount than last year, when 146,898 migrants made the journey between January and October.

Source: https://www.newsweek.com/europe-migrant-crisis-immigrants-home-illegal-1188159?piano_t=1

The post Europe Migrant Crisis: Czech Leader tells 700,000 ‘Illegal migrants’ that ‘they need to go home’ first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.