Russia announces deployment of more troops in response to Sweden and Finland joining NATO

Russia announced this saturday will deploy more military assets In response to your area Accession of sweden And from Finland to NATOWhich he considers a big threat to his country.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov indicated during his participation in the Antalya Diplomatic Forum in Turkey that “appropriate forces will be deployed to respond to security challenges to the Russian Federation emanating from the territories of Finland and Sweden.” He then expressed regret over these redundancies and pointed out that both Helsinki and Stockholm They exchanged “decades of good neighborliness” and neutrality for entry into the alliance.,

The Russian official’s statement came the same week that Parliament met Hungary Sweden’s entry into the bloc was confirmed, marking the last hurdle the country faced in the process.

On Monday, after getting the green light from 188 MPs and only six votes in opposition, the Swedish Prime Minister, Ulf Christerson, celebrated Budapest’s “historic” decision, clearing the last hurdle in the process.

“A historic day. Now the parliaments of all NATO countries have voted on Sweden’s membership. “We stand ready to assume our responsibility for NATO security,” the president wrote in a message on Twitter. However, Russia immediately responded to this message with another stern warning to the entire bloc.

“We will closely monitor what Sweden will do in the aggressive military bloc, how it will conduct its accession in practice (…) Based on this, We will prepare our response with countermeasures of techno-military and other nature.“, announced Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova.

Shortly after Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine, both Sweden and Finland submitted their candidacies to join the alliance in 2022. Since then, the nations were involved in negotiations and various ups and downs, leading to delays and even questions over their merger.

Finland received the go-ahead from 30 members on April 4, thus adding 1,300 kilometers of direct border between NATO and Russia. However, in Stockholm’s case, the process was slower and more difficult, with their commitments to deal with Kurdish terrorism objected to by Turkey and Hungary, among others.

After Sweden agreed to reform its constitution and adopt a new anti-terrorism law, and in the face of growing international pressure, the Ankara parliament greenlighted the request on January 23 this year, thus giving Hungary the final say. . His complete accession.

In addition to mentioning joining the military bloc, Lavrov talked about the two-year-old war in Ukraine, and railed against the West, as he usually does in his speeches.

First he accused usa and allies must have a “warrior” attitude In Kiev and as an example of this were the leaks of conversations within the German armed forces that came to light this Saturday, which talk about the attack on the Kerch bridge and the sending of Taurus missiles to Volodymyr Zelensky’s troops.

He then assured that it is not in his interests to continue the offensive, but that his country is ready to negotiate with Kiev as long as it agrees to recognize its legitimate interests. “The crisis will end when Kyiv starts abiding by the most basic norms of international law, including respect for human rights,” he said.

(With information from Europa Press)