Russia accuses Nato of pursuing ‘Cold War schemes’, vows response
- Nato summit in Lithuania ends with the United States and allies giving Ukraine new security assurances
- Russia’s Foreign Ministry said Russia would respond using ‘all means and methods at our disposal’
Russia has accused Nato of pursuing “Cold War schemes” by whipping up tensions with weapons deliveries to Ukraine and working to divide the world based on ideological differences.
Moscow delivered its scathing assessment hours after a high-stakes, two-day Nato summit in Lithuania wrapped up, during which questions about Ukraine’s future in the Western military alliance were debated.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who was at the summit, was offered long-term security promises by leading powers and assurances that Ukraine would eventually receive an offer to join Nato, but was given no concrete timeline.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said Nato’s vow to further build up Ukraine’s military capabilities across land, sea and air showed that Kyiv’s Western backers were “plotting a course for escalation”.
“They issued a new set of promises to supply the Kyiv regime with increasingly more advanced and long-range weapons in order to prolong the conflict of attrition as long as possible,” the statement issued late Wednesday said.
It added: “We will respond in a timely and appropriate manner, using all means and methods at our disposal”.