Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened to retaliate against NATO if it deploys troops or military infrastructure in Finland and Sweden, while NATO leaders agreed during their summit in Madrid on the new strategic vision of NATO, which considers Russia the biggest threat to it.
At a press conference held yesterday evening, Wednesday, on the sidelines of the Caspian Summit in Turkmenistan, Putin said that Sweden and Finland's accession to NATO is completely different from the issue of Ukraine for his country.
But the Russian president warned that if military units and military infrastructure were deployed in the two countries, Russia would be forced to respond in kind, calling NATO a tool of the Cold War and an expression of US foreign policy.
He also spoke during the press conference about what he described as the special operation launched by his forces in Ukraine since last February 24, saying that it is achieving its goals.
He added that the ultimate goal of the special operation is to protect the Donbass region (eastern Ukraine), and to establish conditions that guarantee Russia's security, as he put it.
The Russian president's comments in Turkmenistan came as the NATO summit in Madrid officially launched the process of Finland and Sweden joining the alliance.
It also comes in light of an escalation of words between Russia and the West in light of the military escalation in Ukraine, and the aggravation of the food crisis in the world as a result of the ongoing war in Russia's western neighbor.
Russia is the biggest threat
On the first day of the NATO summit in Madrid on Wednesday, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said that the alliance's leaders had agreed on the new strategic vision of NATO and considered Russia as its biggest threat.
Stoltenberg added that China is not an adversary of NATO, but it poses serious challenges, stressing that the leaders of the alliance have taken a decision to invite Finland and Sweden to become members of it.
He added that the alliance's partnership with the European Union has reached unprecedented levels, while European Council President Charles Michel said that the strategic partnership between the European Union and NATO has become stronger than ever.
In a statement issued by the Madrid summit, NATO leaders constantly condemned what they described as Russia's "aggression" against Ukraine, and blamed it for the humanitarian disaster and the food and energy crisis as a result of the war waged by Russian forces inside Ukrainian territory.
The leaders pledged to support Ukraine and continue providing military and financial assistance to it until it regains its full sovereignty. They also pledged to enhance the readiness of NATO forces to fight and respond quickly to its eastern flank closest to Russia.
During the summit, US President Joe Biden announced that his country would strengthen its military presence in Spain, Poland, Romania, the Baltic states, Britain, Germany and Italy, so that the alliance could "respond to threats coming from all directions and in all fields by land, air and sea."
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg had said before the summit that the alliance intends to increase the number of its forces deployed on high alert by seven times to more than 700,000 soldiers, and before that NATO pledged to increase the number of its rapid intervention forces from 40,000 to 300,000.
CNN quoted US officials as saying that Washington intends to keep about 100,000 soldiers in Europe after Russia's war on Ukraine, knowing that their number before the start of the Russian war was about 60,000.
The headquarters of the US Ground Forces Unified Command in Europe is based in Stuttgart, while the Air Operations Command is based at Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany.
The US military bases - whether they are land, air or naval bases - are distributed on the European continent in Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Britain, Greece and Bulgaria.
NATO expansion
In Moscow, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said that the further expansion of NATO will lead to instability and will not bring security to its members, and that what he described as the alliance's aggressive approach to contain Russia will not affect in any way its capabilities.
For her part, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that the West's aggressive attempts to impose a world order that suits it proves the correctness of the goal of the Russian military operation in Ukraine, she said.
She added that supplying Ukraine with weapons would prolong the military operation and increase the number of victims, and that the weapons provided by NATO to Ukraine might reach the black market;
Which increases the crime rate in Europe.
arming Ukraine
For his part, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed the leaders of NATO countries during the summit, saying that his country needs advanced air defense systems and weapons, to repel Russian attacks;
He demanded that they support his country and that there be a strong reaction to Russia's actions.
Zelensky stressed that Russia's war is not against Ukraine alone, but all of Europe.
In a quick response to the Ukrainian president's appeal, the British government announced during the NATO summit in Madrid that an additional billion pounds ($1.2 billion) would be allocated to Ukraine to help it confront the Russian attack, noting that this new military aid includes especially air defense systems and drones.
So far, Ukraine has received military support from the United States worth $6.1 billion, and the aid has included advanced systems, including howitzers, missile launchers and drones. Kyiv has also received military support from several European countries, including Germany.