"NATO has never posed a threat to Russia," TASS quotes Scholz as saying during an Open Day at the federal chancellor's office. 

According to RBC with reference to Die Welt, Scholz said that before the Russian special military operation, he told Russian President Vladimir Putin that Ukraine would not join NATO in the next 30 years.

The German Chancellor did not specify exactly when this conversation took place.

Earlier, the head of the Russian Ministry of Defense, Sergei Shoigu, said that the decision to conduct a military defense was taken because of unacceptable threats to Russia's security created by the Ukrainian authorities.