Aleksandr Venediktov, the Deputy Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, has announced that Ukraine's admission to NATO may result in the Third World War.

"Kyiv is well aware that such a step would mean a guaranteed escalation to the Third World War; NATO members themselves understand the suicidal nature of this step," Russian news agency RBC quotes Venediktov.

He also stated that Ukraine's membership in NATO was primarily supported by the countries of Eastern Europe, and not by the old members of the Alliance.

"More serious states, including Brussels itself, were not enthusiastic about this initiative and immediately issued a standard set of counterarguments: non-compliance with the bloc's standards, the presence of territorial disputes, etc.", he said.

The Russian official recalled that the presidents of the nine countries of the North Atlantic Alliance from Central and Eastern Europe had published a joint statement in which they expressed their strong support for the decision of the 2008 Bucharest NATO Summit regarding the future membership of Ukraine in the Alliance.

At the same time, Bulgarian President Rumen Radev refused to join the statement and opposed the accelerated admission of Ukraine to NATO.

Earlier, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced Ukraine's signing of an application for accelerated admission to the North Atlantic Alliance and called on Western partners to implement the proposals for security guarantees prepared by Ukraine, outlined in the Kyiv Security Compact.

Read also: Application to NATO, where we were not expected: all the details of Zelenskyy's decision on "quick admission" into the Alliance.