NATO does not currently see any military threat from Russia against the bloc’s member-states, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said at a press conference in Brussels.
“We don’t see any imminent military threat [from Russia] against any NATO ally,” he said, answering a relevant question from journalists.
© AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert
Nevertheless, Stoltenberg stressed that NATO must be prepared for threats from Russia and stay vigilant. In his opinion, at present Moscow does not threaten the alliance due to the fact that it is preoccupied with Ukraine.
On Monday, Sweden’s flag was officially hoisted at the NATO headquarters in Brussels following its accession to the alliance. Sweden became NATO’s 32nd member.
Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said that there is no sense for NATO to deny the presence of its forces in Ukraine.
“No point in denying it any longer,” she told the Izvestia newspaper, commenting on Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski’s statement.
Earlier, Sikorski told a conference on the 25th anniversary of Poland’s NATO membership that the NATO military are already in Ukraine. He did not say however which country these troops are from.
After a conference on Ukraine in Paris on February 26, Macron said that the participants had considered sending ground troops to Ukraine. Although no consensus was reached on this topic, he left the door open to such a scenario in the future. After the conference, most of the participating counties stated that they have no plans to send troops to Ukraine to fight against Russia.
Commenting on Macron’s statements, Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov said that a direct military conflict between NATO and Russia will be inevitable if Western troops are sent to Ukraine. He also said NATO countries “should also assess” the consequences of such actions and be aware of them.
