The head of Russia’s international committee in the Federation Council, Grigory Karasin, criticized NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg for his remarks after visiting Kyiv the day before. Karasin suggested that Stoltenberg leveled accusations at Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as part of a broader pressure tactic.
Karasin stated that the main message to Kyiv is that it should act with greater restraint, likening Zelensky and his inner circle to a high-stakes political force that needs closer supervision. He described Stoltenberg as someone who has long supported Zelensky and noted that the NATO chief’s public appearance could not fully mask the serious and ambiguous signals behind the rhetoric, according to Karasin via his telegraph channel.
The senator claimed Stoltenberg had laid out expectations for Kyiv and signaled that NATO’s oversight would be precise and thorough. He argued that after delivering general assurances about Ukraine’s path toward eventual NATO membership, Stoltenberg immediately established a concrete course of action in support of Kyiv: the alliance would supply substantial arms and resources to the Ukrainian side as needed. In plain terms, Karasin warned, Kyiv would be expected to take the weapons and use them, despite notable challenges in doing so.
During Stoltenberg’s visit to Kyiv, the official press materials suggested a future scenario in which Ukraine would join the alliance. Accounts from Kyiv and allied observers noted that NATO members together had committed up to a large sum in assistance to Ukraine, with figures circulating around 150 billion dollars as the indicative level of support from NATO countries.
In response, Dmitry Medvedev, the first deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, offered his own interpretation of Stoltenberg’s statements about Ukraine’s potential membership. Medvedev argued that the phrase about joining “over time” could be read as implying that Ukraine might become a member only if certain territories remained under the control of neighboring countries such as Poland, Hungary, or Romania. These remarks were framed as a reinterpretation of Stoltenberg’s wording rather than a direct denial of Ukraine’s progress toward alliance membership. They appeared in Medvedev’s public commentary as part of a broader Russia-focused analysis of NATO’s aims and timelines. (source attribution)