RT: As it stands at the moment, America seems to think the more Russia is punished here, the more sorted the situation will be, do you agree with that?

Willie Wimmer: I think the situation is totally complicated and everything we know perhaps goes back to the Cuban crisis some decades ago.

RT: In that the Cold War continues?

WW: I think it’s even more complicated. It’s not only a Cold War it can be outstanding and dangerous and when we go back to the Cuban crisis, we know that big powers usually draw a red line and for the Americans it had been 90 km away from Miami there shouldn’t be a Soviet nuclear arsenal. And here in the Ukraine, it’s again similar. The Russian Federation draws a red line and they are not interested in having a country direct in their neighborhood who might change itself into a living danger, like a land mine, like a nuclear arsenal, which is located next to my own border. And therefore I think we face a critical situation in the next few weeks, perhaps even the next days and we only can hope that somebody might intervene in a sympathetic way and not create war in Europe.