If Ukraine joins NATO and tries to return the occupied Crimea, World War III may begin in the world.

Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council, said this in an interview with the Argumenty i Fakty newspaper.

According to him, Sweden's and Finland's accession to NATO does not threaten Russia in any way, but the alleged accession of Ukraine to the Alliance is "much more dangerous."

"For us, Crimea is part of Russia. And it is forever. Any attempt to encroach on Crimea is a declaration of war on our country. And if it is done by a country that is a member of NATO, it is a conflict with the entire North Atlantic Alliance. World War III. A total disaster," said Medvedev.

The return of the temporarily occupied Crimea will happen immediately. Without any attempts, which Mr. Medvedev threatens to do.

The secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, Oleksiy Danilov, said this, as evidenced by his Twitter post. 

"I want to reassure Mr. Medvedev: 'Crimea is yours' can only be in the sick anti-Semitic, Ukrainophobic imagination of some Kremlin figures, and there will be no attempt. The return of the temporarily occupied territory of Crimea will take place without any attempts, right away," Danilov noted.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">I want to reassure mr. <a href="https://twitter.com/MedvedevRussiaE?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@medvedevrussiae</a>: “Your Crimea” can only exist in the sick anti-Semitic, Ukrainophobic imagination of some Kremlin figures, and there will be no such attempt.</p>&mdash; Oleksiy Danilov (@OleksiyDanilov) <a href="https://twitter.com/OleksiyDanilov/status/1541719388658827264?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 28, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

We would like to point out that the permanent representative of the Ukrainian president in Crimea, Tamila Tasheva, allowed that the return of Crimea, which is now temporarily occupied by Russia, is also possible by military means, because since 24 February, the approaches to this issue have changed.

We recall that the head of the Ministry of Defense Oleksiy Reznikov recently said that weapons from allies will help Ukraine return Russian-occupied territories, including Crimea, and said at what stage this could happen.

Earlier, the Ukrainian intelligence service admitted that by the end of the year, the Ukrainian Armed Forces could at least enter the territory of the temporarily occupied peninsula.