On the same day that a Hamas delegation made a rare visit to Moscow to discuss the crisis in Gaza, President Vladimir Putin warned in a speech that the conflict has the potential to spread well beyond the Middle East.

In a Wednesday meeting at the Kremlin, he decried Israel’s indiscriminate airstrikes on the Gaza Strip which have left over 7,000 people, mostly civilians and at least half of them women and children, dead. “Our task today, our main task, is to stop the bloodshed and violence,” said Putin, as cited from an official transcript.

“Otherwise, further escalation of the crisis is fraught with grave and extremely dangerous and destructive consequences.” That’s when the Russian president emphasized, “And not only for the Middle East region. It could spill over far beyond the borders of the Middle East.”