Russian President Vladimir Putin has once again accused the West of “misleading” Russia on the issue of expanding the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). At the same time, he noted that the country had no intention of fighting against Europe and the North Atlantic military alliance.
The statement was made during a speech at an expanded meeting of the Council of the Russian Defense Ministry this Tuesday (19). Regarding the war situation in Ukraine, Putin said that Russia was “the only guarantor of Kiev’s sovereignty” and that the West had behaved “illegally” and forced Russia to “react”.
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Vladimir Putin emphasized that Russia will negotiate peace in Ukraine only on its own terms and will not abandon the goals of the “special military operation” (the Kremlin's official name for the war in Ukraine).
“The West will not abandon its strategy to contain Russia and its aggressive goals in Ukraine. But we will not give up our goals of the special military operation either,” Putin said.
Specifically addressing the situation at the front, the President emphasized that today the Russian army has the combat initiative on the line of contact, adding that “the myth of the invulnerability of Western military equipment has collapsed.”
Finland in NATO increases tensions on the border
Commenting on Finland's entry into NATO last Sunday (17), the Russian leader said that the neighboring country “will have problems now” due to joining the military alliance.
“They took Finland and dragged it into NATO. Did we have any arguments? All disputes, including those of a territorial nature, were settled a long time ago, in the middle of the 20th century. Relations were the friendliest and warmest (with Finland),” he stressed.
The Russian president stated that now with Finland joining the Western military bloc, Russia will create a military district on the border where it will concentrate its military units.
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Russian Defense Minister Serguey Shoigu, in turn, said in his statement on the increase in military presence on the border that Moscow “takes into account the agreement signed between the USA and Finland, which provides for the use by the Americans of 21 Finnish military installations, including all four air bases” .
According to the minister, the size of the Russian Armed Forces will be increased to 1.5 million soldiers in the near future as a proportional response to external threats.
Finland officially became the 31st member of NATO on April 4 this year. Finland's entry into the USled military alliance represents a break with the neutral position the country adopted for decades so as not to harm relations with the Soviet Union and later Russia. The war that Russia started with Ukraine on February 24, 2022 changed Helsinki's position.
The length of the land border between Finland and Russia is more than 1,270 kilometers. In other words: in practice, the size of Russia's border with NATO doubled.
Editor: Rodrigo Durão Coelho
