- This content was produced in Russia, where the law restricts coverage of Russian military operations in Ukraine.
MOSCOW, June 29 (Reuters) – President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that Russia would respond in kind if NATO deployed troops and infrastructure in Finland and Sweden after they joined the US-led military alliance.
“We don’t have the problems with Sweden and Finland that we have with Ukraine. You want to join NATO, go ahead,” Putin told Russian state television after talks with regional leaders in the Central Asian ex-Soviet state of Turkmenistan.
“But they need to understand that before there was no threat, now that military contingents and infrastructure are being deployed there, we need to respond in the same way and create the same threats to the areas from which threats against us arise.”
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He said it was inevitable that Moscow’s relations with Helsinki and Stockholm would sour because of their NATO membership.
“Everything was fine between us, but now there might be some tension, there certainly will be,” he said. “It’s inevitable when there’s a threat to us.”
Putin made his comment a day after NATO member Turkey lifted its veto on Finland and Sweden’s bid to join the alliance after the three nations agreed to protect each other’s security. Continue reading
The move means Helsinki and Stockholm can proceed with their bid to join NATO, marking the biggest shift in European security in decades.
Putin added that the goals of what Moscow calls its “military special operation” in Ukraine remain unchanged, that their aim is to “liberate” the Donbass region in eastern Ukraine and create conditions to ensure Russia’s security to guarantee.
He said Russian troops had advanced in Ukraine and the military intervention was proceeding as planned. There is no need to set a deadline for the end of the campaign.
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Reporting by Reuters Editors Ron Popeski and Deepa Babington
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