(Bloomberg) -- The Kremlin said it views the results of last week’s NATO summit as “threatening” for Russia and signaling no grounds to start talks to end the war in Ukraine.
“The alliance is demonstrating its determination to remain an enemy for us,” President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in a prerecorded interview on state TV with reporter Pavel Zarubin published on Telegram.
Ukraine’s potential NATO membership has been among the rationales offered by Russia for its “special military operation” - the invasion in February 2022 planned to last days or weeks that’s now grinding through its third year.
The alliance “has clearly said that Ukraine will be in NATO,” Peskov said in the interview.
During the summit in Washington that ended on Thursday, NATO allies promised more support to Kyiv, and outgoing Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told Bloomberg TV that Ukraine will become a member of the alliance “when the time is right.”
Separately, the White House announced on Wednesday that it would periodically station long-range weapons, including Tomahawk cruise missiles in Germany from 2026 as a deterrent.
In response, Peskov said the confrontation between Russia and US is deep and there are no signs of an “exit from this spiral.” A dialog about missile deployment will come at some point, he said.
Peskov on Friday told reporters that the US missile deployment plan was “highly provocative,” and on Saturday suggested a Cold War-type confrontation is ramping up.
Defense Minister Andrey Belousov initiated a call with US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Friday to discuss “reducing the risk of possible escalation” following news of the missile deployments, Russia’s defense ministry said. The US confirmed the call but provided few details.
Separately, Russia plans to “carefully observe” the US presidential election, Peskov said in response to a question on whether the situation might change after the November vote.
“We’ll see who will participate in them in the end. Who will win there and whether he will be able to become the president if he wins,” Peskov said. “Now everything is not guaranteed there either.”
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