Russia warns Finland, Sweden's accession to NATO will stoke tensions in Arctic region

Sweden and Finland's NATO bid could accelerate Russia's militarization of the Arctic region and escalate regional tensions, Russia's foreign ministry on Wednesday warned. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova, during the press call, responded to a reporter's question on how Sweden and Finland's NATO accession will impact the Arctic Council—the intergovernmental forum promoting cooperation, coordination and interaction among the Arctic States. Zakharova answered that Moscow, in that case, will be the only state that will be a non-NATO member left in the Arctic Council. 

“It cannot be ignored that once these countries join the alliance, all member states of the Arctic Council apart from Russia will be members of the North Atlantic bloc,” Russia's foreign ministry spokeswoman noted addressing the press at a briefing. 

Russia's Zakharova, although, emphasized that since the Arctic Council does not deal with any military security issues, therefore, it shall not be related to Sweden and Finland's accession to NATO. In a later statement,  Russia's foreign ministry slammed NATO for pumping weapons into Ukraine, saying Russia opposes not only the formations of the Kyiv regime, referring to the foreign boots on the battlefield, but also countries of the North Atlantic Alliance [NATO] "that provide all sorts of military support to Kyiv and wage a proxy war on Russia."

NATO trying to weaken Russian Federation: Russian MFA

Russia accused NATO members of trying to weaken Russian Federation and destroy its military potential. It slammed what it described the disinformation and war propaganda, such as Russia launching high-precision strikes against energy and other infrastructure in Ukraine. "First of all Western, facilitate their logistics and liaison," the Russian foreign ministry asserted. 

Russia further claimed that NATO's weapons supply has been exacerbating the conflict. It continued that the residential buildings and civilian infrastructure were damaged due to Ukrainian air defence systems that are deployed in centres of Ukrainian cities rather than on the outskirts. "As a result, the wreckage of the missiles or stray Ukrainian missiles hit the facilities that we never targeted," Russian MFA iterated. 

"We launch strikes against the Ukrainian infrastructure in retaliation for the pumping-up of Ukraine with Western weapons," asserted Russia's Foreign Ministry, adding that Ukrainian army and its Western coalition "threatens the security and territorial integrity of Russia."

"Western states seek to establish their geopolitical hegemony by proxy at the expense of Ukrainian lives," Russian MFA added.