BUCHAREST, August 21. /TASS/. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky created the risk of nuclear war for all his allies without their consent by ordering an attack on Russia’s Kursk Region, said Silviu Predoiu, a former chief of the Romanian Foreign Intelligence Service.

"A red line has been crossed," he told Canal 33 television. "They took the risk of having a nuclear strike as a response, and they took it on our behalf as well."

"Ukraine has chosen a moment of allied weakness," he went on to say. "America is running an election campaign, led by a president who is in physical and mental decline, with a vice president who has no idea what international politics, geopolitics and so on are. In NATO, one secretary-general is replacing another. In the EU, the powers of the new European Commission are being transferred."

"Ukraine understood very well what it was doing," Predoiu said. "And it said this: We are fed up with your indecision. <...> You know what? We entered Russia <...> with your tanks, guns, machine guns, ammunition. You're all already there, in Russia. Let's see what you're going to do now."

"And that's wrong," the retired general said. "That’s not what we are helping them for - to find ourselves dragged into the conflict. And they are very interested in getting everyone involved. We are helping in good faith <...>, but they went too far."

Ukrainian forces started a major attack on the Kursk Region on August 6. Missile attack warnings have been issued repeatedly in the region since then, and the government declared a federal-level emergency there. According to the Emergency Situations Ministry, more than 122,000 people have been resettled from nine districts near the border. Temporary accommodation centers for Kursk Region residents that had to leave their homes have been opened in 28 Russian regions.

According to the Russian Defense Ministry, Ukraine has lost more than 4,400 servicemen, 65 tanks and 53 armored personnel carriers since the start of fighting in the Kursk area. The operation to destroy Ukrainian formations is ongoing.