A senior Russian military official said Israel’s main objective is to intensify the Middle East conflict and draw the United States and NATO into war. Apti Alaudinov, commander of Russia’s Akhmat Special Forces and deputy head of the army’s main military-political directorate, made the remarks in an interview with Russia’s state news agency TASS, published August 19, 2026.

Alaudinov said the situation in the Middle East would become more heated in the coming days. He said the war in the region would expand and argued that Israel sought to increase the conflict as much as possible in order to involve the United States and the entire NATO alliance.

The Russian official also said Israel would ultimately overestimate its own strength. He stated that this could result in the country’s existence as a state being eliminated. The source article attributes the report to Al Jazeera and does not include a response from Israel, the United States, NATO, or other parties.