BERLIN, November 23. /TASS/. The confrontation in Ukraine is no longer a regional conflict, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said.

The conflict in Ukraine "ceased to be a regional war long ago," the DPA news agency quoted him as saying at an event organized to the Friedrich Ebert Foundation close to Germany’s Social Democratic Party (SPD). According to Pistorius, Russia has "entirely switched to the war economy" and is manufacturing as many weapons and munitions in three months as the European Union can manufacture in a year. "Our defense is a fragile thing," he said and called on Germany to invest more into its warfare capacities.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on November 21 that strikes on Russian territory with Western long-range missiles had made the conflict in Ukraine a global one. The West’s provocative policy may entail serious consequences if escalation continues, the Russian leader warned.