——— Russian Defence Chief confirms establishment of two military districts in response to expansion of NATO borders
DM Monitoring
MOSCOW: Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu announced on Tuesday that his country established two new military districts in response to the expansion of NATO borders.
Speaking at a meeting with Russian military chiefs in Moscow, Shoigu said the decision was made in response to Finland’s and Sweden’s accession to the alliance. “Due to the build-up of NATO’s military potential near the Russian borders, the expansion of the alliance through the accession of Finland and, in the future, Sweden, we have taken steps to strengthen the groupings of troops in the northwestern and western strategic directions. “Two strategic territorial associations of the Armed Forces have been created – the Leningrad and Moscow Military Districts,” he said. In May 2022, Sweden and Finland applied to join NATO, abandoning their long-standing policy of military neutrality, after Russia launched its “special military operation” in Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022.
Finland’s accession to NATO took place on April 4, 2023. Initially, Hungary and Türkiye opposed Sweden’s application due to existing controversies over counter-terrorism issues. However, in July 2023, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that the two countries had found common ground, and Ankara lifted its objection. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said Budapest would also not block Sweden’s entry and would support its membership. Sweden completed its membership procedures last month and is due to join officially.
Earlier, President Vladimir Putin told Western countries on Thursday they risked provoking a nuclear war if they sent troops to fight in Ukraine, warning that Moscow had the weapons to strike targets in the West.
The war in Ukraine has triggered the worst crisis in Moscow’s relations with the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. Putin has previously spoken of the dangers of a direct confrontation between NATO and Russia, but his nuclear warning on Thursday was one of his most explicit.
Addressing lawmakers and other members of the country’s elite, Putin, 71, repeated his accusation that the West was bent on weakening Russia, and he suggested Western leaders did not understand how dangerous their meddling could be in what he cast as Russia’s own internal affairs.
He prefaced his nuclear warning with a specific reference to an idea, floated by French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday, of European NATO members sending ground troops to Ukraine – a suggestion that was quickly rejected by the United States, Germany, Britain and others.
