The war in Ukraine is “guaranteed” to escalate into World War III if Kyiv is allowed to join NATO, a Russian Security Council official said Thursday. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made a surprise announcement that he had made a fast-track bid for membership into the military alliance just hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin annexed almost a fifth of Ukrainian territory on Sept. 30. All of NATO’s 30 members would have to approve Ukraine’s bid, making full membership of the defense group a long way off. “Kyiv is well aware that such a step would mean a guaranteed escalation to World War III,” Russia's state-run TASS news agency quoted Alexander Venediktov, deputy secretary of the Security Council, as saying. The loyal Putin ally added: “The suicidal nature of such a step is understood by NATO members themselves.”