The collapse of Russia would have repercussions for the West, a senior Ukrainian government official said.
The National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine’s secretary, Oleksiy Danilov, thinks Russia is already disintegrating.
The West is terrified of Russia‘s fragmentation, he told The Times, and neither side knows what Russia is like.
Yet, this process is already in motion.
He continued by saying that Kyiv thinks Russia will disintegrate in a “spectacular” way within the next years.
‘It is a historic process and you can’t stop history,’ Mr Danilov added.
But he thinks China may attempt to take territory in Russia following the fallout – especially in Siberia, where there are significant Chinese populations.
‘Letting China take Russian territory will be dangerous for the West because by unlocking one problem they will create another. There needs to be initial steps by the West now.
‘China is a big country and will be a mighty rival to the Anglo-Saxon world. Now it’s the owner of Russia.
‘Russia will no longer undertake any important action without them. Russia fully lost its sovereignty. That’s a fact.’
Mr Danilov pointed to the fact that although Russian leader Vladimir Putin and Chinese president Xi Jinping declared friendship ‘without limits’ in their recent summit, China did not offer to provide weapons to the war effort.
He suggested the meeting in fact just demonstrated ‘weakness’ within the Kremlin.
He further claimed China was ‘acting in its own interest’ when refusing Western sanctions on purchasing Russian oil and gas, and thinks China’s hand has been strengthened by this.
The ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine seems to have come to a standstill recently, with the war centring around the city of Bakhmut, near the Donetsk region.
Neither side appear to be making significant gains, but the cracks are beginning to show following a leak of secret documents revealing Putin’s cyberwar tactics and two of his cronies were caught calling him a ‘dwarf’ and ‘Satan’ in a leaked recording.
Over the weekend Mr Danilov outlined the steps the Ukrainian government would take after the country reclaims control of Crimea, including dismantling the bridge linking the Black Sea peninsula to Russia.
Ukraine’s military is currently preparing for a spring counter-offensive in hopes of making new gains and ending the war, which has now continued for more than a year.
Finland is also set to officially join Nato today, which will finally secure its place in the Western military alliance.