NATO will closely monitor Russia’s upcoming nuclear exercise but not be cowed into dropping support for Ukraine by Moscow’s veiled nuclear threats, the alliance’s chief said on Thursday.
“We will not be intimidated,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters after a two-day meeting of the alliance’s defense ministers. “Russia’s nuclear rhetoric is dangerous, reckless, and they know that if they use (a) nuclear weapon against Ukraine, it will have severe consequences.”
The meeting was the first large NATO gathering since Moscow announced it would annex several Ukrainian territories, began a partial mobilization and issued veiled nuclear threats, moves NATO has classified as a clear escalation of the war that started when Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24.
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