Roman Kostenko, Ukrainian lawmaker, Secretary of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on National Security, Defense, and Intelligence, SBU Colonel, expressed this opinion on Espreso TV."I believe Putin is setting things up, similar to how things unfolded in World War II and how Putin operates today. It's about saying, 'If someone attacks me, I will fight.' Then, from that idea of 'if I'm attacked,' it's easy to cause a situation or claim, 'We were attacked, or are about to be attacked,' and say we acted first. This is simple to do, but it's a serious warning. Our intelligence also discusses this, and countries in NATO and the European Union are aware of it. I'm not sure Putin wants to fight all of NATO. However, because NATO is currently very inactive, he and his intelligence understand that if they wanted to, they could take the Baltic states, and no one would stop them. These are small areas, similar in size to one of our Donetsk regions," he explained.Roman Kostenko pointed out that, for instance, Estonia's army has only 7,500 soldiers. And the country doesn't have much room to quickly gather more troops."This is, without a doubt, a very risky situation. So, we realize that Putin might act if he succeeds in Ukraine, or if he ends the war there. Again, our intelligence and our partners' intelligence understand that the Baltic states could be next. Given NATO's current inactivity, he thinks he can succeed and then just threaten with nuclear weapons. He believes Europe might give up these countries to avoid a bigger war, thinking that these areas were once in Russia's sphere of influence and will remain so. The goal wouldn't be to conquer them, but to put their own leaders in charge. We already understand these tactics, how they've used changes in leadership and fake referendums. Therefore, it's clear that at least the Baltic states are at risk," the colonel stated.