There are a few sane voices left in the EU and NATO when it comes to urging an immediate de-escalation of rhetoric regarding Russia. Still, it's a refreshing surprise when dovish sentiment comes from a country forming part of NATO's eastern flank in particular.
"We always need to think about the worst-case scenario," Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev has told a European defense summit while warning that seeking to impose total defeat on Russia poses real risks of nuclear war.
Radev instead urged robust diplomacy to avert such a catastrophe. "The problem is that no one is raising the question about nuclear risk. Does it exist? Maybe not, I don't know, but this is a risk," he stated in remarks published Wednesday.
"I don't think the war in Ukraine will end in a nuclear war but we have to be prepared for the risk."
"We always need to think about the worst-case scenario. Are we prepared for this? Does anybody speak about risk assessment? Does it exist at all? Because we have been trying to achieve a conventional victory over the biggest nuclear power."
He acknowledged that "there is a nuclear card" which Russia would be more likely to play if it perceived itself cornered.
"We need to have this into account. We cannot close our eyes (to the fact) that there are nuclear weapons on our continent, there are nuclear weapons in the arsenal of Russia."
The Bulgarian prime minister emphasized, "And this is
