International Kremlin calls NATO decision a threat to Russia

The Kremlin has described the NATO decisions on Ukraine as a threat to its own security and announced countermeasures. The decision to include Ukraine in the alliance sooner or later illustrates the alliance's main goal of keeping Russia down and inflicting a strategic defeat on the country, said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

"This is a very serious threat to the national security of our country. This requires us to take well thought-out and coordinated measures to contain Nato, to counter Nato," he told journalists in Moscow.

During the meeting, Peskov once again mentioned the Russian nuclear doctrine. He confirmed that changes to the doctrine were being worked on. He did not give any details. The current guiding principle is that Russia may only use nuclear weapons in response to a nuclear attack on its own territory or an existential threat to the country in the event of a conventional attack. Hardliners in Moscow had criticized this line as being too soft.

At its summit meeting in Washington, NATO assured Ukraine, which had been attacked by Russia, that it could no longer be stopped on its path to joining the defense alliance. In the final declaration, the path to membership is described as irreversible. At the same time, it was emphasized once again that a formal invitation to join could only be issued once all allies had agreed and all admission conditions had been met. These include reforms in the areas of democracy, the economy and the security sector.

Russia had also launched its war of aggression against Ukraine in order to prevent the neighboring country from joining NATO. In addition to territorial cessions, one of Moscow's demands for peace negotiations is that Ukraine renounce its membership of the alliance.