War Ukraine – Russia, live, breaking news | Putin accuses NATO countries of preparing for war against Russia

The president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, accused NATO allies on Tuesday of preparing for a war against Russia, ensuring that the threat it represents to Moscow forces them to take a series of measures that, in his opinion, Western countries project as aggression. “While previously NATO countries were limited to supporting the kyiv regime, which came to power through an illegal armed coup d’état, now they openly talk about preparing for a war against us and increasing their offensive military budgets,” the Russian president criticized in a speech to military graduates, reported by the Russian agency TASS. Putin has singled out this group of countries for, in his opinion, using false pretexts to increase their military spending. “The pattern of action of the so-called pseudo-democratic West is very simple: first, they create threats to our country, forcing us to take the necessary measures for our self-defense and protection, and then, immediately, they accuse us of all mortal sins to justify their aggressive policies and actions against Russia,” he assured. The Russian leader has thus stressed that the risk of conflict “increases considerably in several regions of the world”, also on the European continent.