Russia’s foreign ministry said Wednesday that the results of a NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, indicated that the military alliance “has finally returned to Cold War strategies,” CNN reported.

“The collective West, led by the United States, is not ready to put up with the emergence of a multipolar world and intends to defend its hegemony by all available means, including the military,” the agency said in a statement.

“NATO’s attempts to cover its aggressive aspirations and actions with the UN Charter do not withstand any criticism. The alliance and the world organization have nothing in common,” he added.

In the same statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs noted that Moscow will carefully analyze the results of the Vilnius summit and will respond in a timely manner, “using all the means and methods at our disposal.”

The ministry also promised that Russia will continue to strengthen its military and defense system.

Russia must win

Armed confrontation in Ukraine will continue until the West abandons its plans to dominate and defeat Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview published on Wednesday with an Indonesian newspaper, Reuters reported.

“Why does the armed conflict in Ukraine not stop? The answer is very simple – it will continue until the West abandons its plans to maintain its dominance and overcomes its obsessive desire to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia by its puppets in Kyiv,” says the transcript of the interview published on the website of the Russian MFA, quoted by Agerpres.

“So far, there are no signs of a change in this position,” said the head of Russian diplomacy.

Russia launched a large-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, in what it calls a “special military operation” to “denazify” the neighboring state. Kyiv and its allies qualify the war, which has already entered its 17th month, as an imperialist aggression aimed at conquering new territories.

The Kremlin complains that NATO treats Russia as an enemy

The Kremlin on Tuesday accused NATO of treating Russia as an “enemy,” adding that it would closely monitor any decision taken at the alliance’s summit in Vilnius later this week, Reuters and Agerpres reported.

“Russia is perceived by them (NATO leaders) as an enemy, an adversary. It is on this note that the (Vilnius) negotiations will take place,” Kremlin press secretary Dmytro Peskov said during the daily press conference on Thursday afternoon.

“We are watching this very closely because most of the things that will be said (at the NATO summit) will be subject to deep analysis in order to take measures to ensure our own security,” he added.

Earlier in the day, NATO’s secretary general sent a tongue-in-cheek message to President Vladimir Putin, saying the war he has launched in Ukraine has had the exact opposite effect he had hoped for in terms of expanding the alliance.

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