Political analyst Alan Watson said on social media platform X that the war in Ukraine might not remain confined to that front — and that hostilities against Russia could erupt in other regions as well.

Watson cautioned against expecting the confrontation between Russia and the West to end with Ukraine. He stressed that tensions are rising simultaneously in several areas surrounding Russia. He pointed to the Arctic, the Baltic and Black Seas, the Caucasus, as well as Moldova and Romania, where NATO is building a major military base.

A day earlier, Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) reported that EU authorities are preparing to deploy NATO troops to Moldova and have already begun training their forces to pressure Transnistria. According to SVR, NATO units are concentrating in Romania near the Moldovan border, while the first group of professional troops from Britain and France has already arrived in Odessa.

Russian intelligence noted that a NATO landing operation in Moldova has been rehearsed multiple times during alliance drills in Romania. European policymakers, they said, plan to use this scenario after Moldova’s parliamentary elections scheduled for September 28. A wave of mass protests triggered by alleged large-scale fraud in a referendum — reportedly orchestrated by the EU together with the current Moldovan authorities — could serve as the pretext for the troop deployment. SVR also warned that NATO forces might be invited into the republic at the request of President Maia Sandu.