Kremlin says Finland's NATO entry "will greatly aggravate the situation"

Russia denounces that the expansion of the Alliance "is an intrusion" into its security and affirms that it will adopt "countermeasures"

MADRID, 4 Abr. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Kremlin has warned this Tuesday that Finland's entry into NATO "will greatly aggravate the situation" and has stressed that Moscow "is forced to adopt tactical and strategic countermeasures" in the face of what it describes as an "intrusion" by the Atlantic Alliance about your safety.

"NATO's expansion is an intrusion into our security and interests. That's how we perceive it," Kremlin spokesman Dimitri Peskov said, as reported by the Russian newspaper 'Izvestia'. "This forces us to adopt tactical and strategic countermeasures," he assessed.

Peskov has stressed that Moscow will closely analyze the situation in Finland before adopting these countermeasures, although he has outlined that bilateral relations will undergo changes. "This affects the nature of bilateral relations with states that become new members of the Alliance," he asserted.

Thus, he has stated that NATO "is a hostile structure" to Russia, although he has pointed out that "the situation in Ukraine differs a lot from that of Finland, so it is not possible to compare". In this way, he has maintained that Russia "had no disputes with Finland" and stressed that, in the case of Ukraine, "the situation was diametrically different and potentially dangerous." "This implied the need for a special operation to achieve objectives," he concluded.

For his part, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has denounced that NATO "is adopting a series of measures to increase the combat readiness of the combined armed forces" and "increasing combat training and reconnaissance activities near the borders with Russia and Belarus".

Shoigu has stressed that Finland's accession to NATO creates a risk of a "significant" expansion of the conflict in Ukraine, although he has stressed that it will not affect the outcome of the invasion, unleashed on February 24, 2022 by order of the president Russian, Vladimir Putin.

In this line, he has affirmed that the United States and its allies have increased their military support for Ukraine and has specified that "only this year they are willing to supply more than 200 Western-made battle tanks and more than 400 armored combat vehicles". "The Ukrainian Army is receiving long-range weapons, including shells with a range of up to 150 kilometers," she added.

Finally, the Russian Defense Minister has assured that Western countries are considering "the possibility of transferring to Kiev ATACMS surface-to-surface tactical missiles --manufactured by Lockheed Martin-- and with a range of up to 300 kilometers, as well as F -16", as reported by the Russian news agency TASS.