The US is anxious that Russia’s repeated threatening of the Baltic states could see a brand new front open in Europe.
Moscow has usually and falsely accused Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania of facilitating drone strikes on Russia’s key oil ports.
There are fears Moscow is in search of to open a brand new front against the West, a move that would potentially trigger WW3.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said: ‘We understand these countries feel threatened by it, obviously, for obvious reasons.
‘So, it’s a concerning thing, because you mostly worry that something like that may spark into something larger, and that’s at all times a possibility.’
He warned of a ‘fear of escalation’, saying Washington was closely monitoring the mounting tension.
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Nordic and Baltic states united to reject Russia’s ‘blatant disinformation campaign and false claims’ after Moscow alleged that Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were allowing Ukraine to make use of their territory or airspace for attacks on Kremlin territory.
‘The Nordic-Baltic countries have never allowed their territory or airspace for use for these attacks against targets in Russia,’ said the foreign ministers of the NB8 states, which include Sweden, Finland, Norway, Iceland, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
They accused Putin of in search of ‘to divert attention’ from Russia’s ‘illegal war’.
‘This will not succeed and must stop immediately,’ they added.
This weekend, Ukraine staged major attacks against military-linked sites in Russia, including oil refineries used to fund Putin’s war.
In Black Sea naval port of Novorossiysk, the Grushovaya oil terminal, a subsidiary of Transneft, the most important oil storage facility within the Caucasus, was ablaze.
It has a complete capability of about 1.2 million tons of petroleum products.
Smoke was also rising from the Shesharis oil loading terminal on the Novorossiysk coast.
In a long-distance strike, Ukraine also hit Perm within the Urals, a distance of 1,000-plus miles.
The Metafrax chemical plant, supplying hexamine and pentaerythritol, used for explosives and weapons production, was on fire.
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