Sergei Lavrov, Russia's foreign minister has recently said that the West was playing with fire by allowing the Ukraine to strike deep into Russian territory, as has occurred with the attack upon the western Kursk region. "We are now confirming once again that playing with fire - and they are like small children playing with matches - is a very dangerous thing for grown-up uncles and aunts who are entrusted with nuclear weapons in one or another Western country," Lavrov told reporters in Moscow.
"Americans unequivocally associate conversations about Third World War as something that, God forbid, if it happens, will affect Europe exclusively," Lavrov said." https://www.yahoo.com/news/russia-warns-united-states-risks-135240871.html
However as observed by Michael Snyder, the West does not believe that Russia will follow through on this, even though Russia has been preparing for nuclear war since the Cold War, and has anti-missile systems fully adequate to deal with anything NATO throws at them. And Russia has a massive number of underground bunkers which the Russian population would use. The US, UK and Australia have nothing for civilians.
https://michaeltsnyder.substack.com/p/russia-is-literally-threatening-us
The game of prodding the nuclear bear is extremely dangerous, and at some point, could literally explode in the West's face. And, for what? Candace Owens sums it up about Ukrainian President Zelensky: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CFn65JEn5s; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FNDKdptBRY.