Europe Kremlin accuses Nato Secretary General Stoltenberg of provocation

The Kremlin has sharply criticized NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg's position on missile strikes deep inside Russia.

"This flaunted willingness not to take the Russian president's statements seriously is a short-sighted and unprofessional move," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian agencies. Such an attitude is "deeply provocative and dangerous", he warned.

In his opinion, Stoltenberg's comments were also due to his imminent departure as Secretary General of the Western military alliance, Peskov replied. After all, the Norwegian will no longer be responsible for the consequences of such a conflict from October 1.

Stoltenberg sees no escalation through long-range missiles

Stoltenberg had previously told the British daily newspaper "The Times" that the deployment of longer-range missiles would not drag NATO into the conflict with Russia. "It is wrong to say that the Nato allies would be drawn into the conflict if they allow the weapons to be used against legitimate targets on Russian territory," said the Norwegian. "North Korea and Iran provide considerable military support and provide Russia with missiles and drones without being directly involved in the conflict."

The NATO Secretary General emphasized that there had already been many red lines that Russian President Vladimir Putin had drawn and had not allowed to escalate. "He didn't do that because he knows that NATO is the strongest military alliance in the world," said Stoltenberg.

Putin threatens the West

Last week, Putin had threatened the West in the debate about the release of extensive weapons to Ukraine. The Kremlin leader said that the use of far-reaching Western precision weapons against targets deep in Russian territory would be seen as NATO involvement in the war. "This will mean that the countries of NATO, the USA and the European countries will be fighting with Russia," said the Kremlin leader in response to a question from a journalist on state television in St. Petersburg. Russian UN Ambassador Vasily Nebensia referred to Russia's nuclear weapons in the United Nations Security Council.

Ukraine has been fighting a defensive battle against a large-scale Russian invasion for two and a half years and is also receiving massive support from the West. So far, however, the USA and other Western states have refused Kiev's demand to release their weapons for strikes deep into Russian territory. The Ukrainian leadership justifies this demand with the fact that Russian bombers and fighter jets take off from there and regularly carry out devastating attacks against Ukrainian territory, also hitting civilian targets.

SDA