Maria Zakharova, spokesperson for the Russian Foreign Ministry, announced on Wednesday that Russia "will take military, technical, and other unspecified countermeasures to protect itself" following Sweden's accession to NATO, which she described as a hostile and erroneous step. She stated, "We will closely monitor what Sweden does in this hostile military bloc and how it practically exercises its membership... Based on this, we will respond with retaliatory steps of a military and technical nature alongside other measures."
She added that "Sweden's move to join NATO is inflaming tensions and provoking militarism." The last obstacle to Sweden's NATO membership was removed on Monday after the Hungarian parliament approved its accession. The Russian embassy in Stockholm also mentioned on its Telegram account on Tuesday that unspecified military and technical countermeasures would be taken based on the number of troops and the volume of equipment that NATO will deploy within Sweden.
