Putin Says He Won’t Attack NATO As Russia, Ukraine Trade Drone Strikes

(Bloomberg) -- Vladimir Putin said Russia has no intention of attacking NATO countries, describing as “complete nonsense” claims by President Joe Biden that Moscow poses a threat to members of the defense alliance. 

Biden told reporters this month that “if Putin takes Ukraine, he won’t stop there,” as he urged lawmakers to release $61 billion in military aid to Kyiv held up in a dispute with Republicans over border security. 

“If he keeps going and then he attacks a NATO ally,” US forces would be obliged to defend the territory and there’d be “American troops fighting Russian troops,” the president said.

Russia has “no reason or interest, either geopolitical, economic or military, to fight with NATO countries,” President Putin said in excerpts from a Russian state TV interview published Sunday on Telegram. “We have no territorial claims against each other, no desire to spoil relations with them. We are interested to develop relations with them.”

The comments appeared aimed at weakening the resolve of Ukraine’s US and European allies over continued support for Kyiv in defending itself against Russia’s unprovoked invasion. Putin repeatedly denied he planned to attack Ukraine prior to the February 2022 invasion, before triggering Europe’s worst conflict since World War II.

With fighting on the battlefield largely at a stalemate heading into winter, more than $100 billion in US and European Union aid to Ukraine is being held up in political disputes.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy left Washington empty-handed last week as Republican lawmakers sought to force the White House into a deal on changes to US immigration policy before freeing up aid for Kyiv. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Friday vetoed the EU’s planned financial support package.

Putin Exudes Confidence That War in Ukraine Is Going His Way

Putin made his remarks as Russia and Ukraine reported they each intercepted sizable drone attacks overnight. 

Ukraine’s Air Force command said its defenses downed all 20 Shaheed drones and a Kh-59 cruise missile fired by Russia, while an Iskander-K missile also “failed to reach its goal.” One person in the Odesa region died when a downed drone fell on his home and exploded, Ukraine’s southern command said on Telegram.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said it intercepted 35 Ukrainian drones in the Lipetsk, Rostov and Volgograd regions. 

Russian news services cited the governors of the Lipetsk and Volgograd regions as saying there were no casualties or damage.

The strikes came a day after Russia said it downed almost 40 Ukrainian drones. Most were shot down over Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula Russian forces have occupied since 2014, with others destroyed in Russia’s Kursk and Belgorod regions. 

Read more: Zelenskiy Feels the Chill From Ukraine’s Allies in a Tough Week

The weekend attacks followed intense Russian drone and missile strikes targeting several Ukrainian regions, including Kyiv and port infrastructure in the Danube area, over the past week. Ukraine said Russia also fired a Kinzhal hypersonic missile while Putin was holding a media event Thursday in which he vowed to win the war.

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