Putin Ally Confirms Russia's ‘World War’ With Western World: ‘It's A Global Conflict’

Russian President Vladimir Putin is in a "world war" with the West as he continues his invasion of Ukraine, an ally said Wednesday.

In an interview with independent Serbian TV Channel Pink, Serbia President Aleksandar Vucic, who has yet to condemn Putin for invading Ukraine, accused the West of sparking a "war" against Russia through the Ukrainian people.

"We should understand that amid the world war, all the talks that it’s a regional or a local war must be dropped. The entire Western world is fighting against Russia via Ukrainians. It is [a] global conflict," Vucic said, according to Russia’s state-run news agency TASS.

Serbia and Russia have been close allies for centuries. The Serbian government has yet to join nations in Europe and the West in imposing economic sanctions on Russia over Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, an operation he called a "special military operation" that began in late February.

However, Serbia in March backed a UN General Assembly resolution condemning Russia’s attack on Ukraine and demanding that Russia pull its troops out of Ukraine. Serbia’s UN representative Nemanja Stevanovic added that they are "committed to observing the principles of territorial integrity and political independence of states."

The only countries that either abstained from voting or voted against condemning Russia were China, Russia, Syria, North Korea, Eritrea and Belarus.

Vucic is not the first person to allude to the war in Ukraine being a world war. In early June, Russian state TV host Olga Skabeeva said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine could just be the beginning of a global conflict.

"Russia’s special operation in Ukraine has come to an end, in a sense that a real war had started: WWIII. We’re forced to conduct the demilitarization not only of Ukraine, but of the entire NATO alliance," Skabeeva said.

While he has not mentioned the possibility of World War III, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky recently also warned against Russia possibly invading Asian and European countries, including Moldova and Poland, following the war in Ukraine.

In June, Zelensky warned the leaders of NATO that Russia could start invading other countries as well.

"Next year could be a worse situation not only Ukraine but also several other states, possibly members of the alliance ... under fire from Russia," he said.