Armenia's prime minister said Putin's NATO-style alliance, the CSTO, "creates threats" for his country.It's the latest salvo in an ongoing series of snubs from Armenia toward the bloc.Armenia recently froze its membership in the CSTO,

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg is sceptical of Russian leader Vladimir Putin's threats, which come amid discussions about allowing Ukraine to launch long-range missiles deep into Russia. Source: Stoltenberg in an interview with The Times,

The Russian president said Western support for Ukrainian strikes deep inside Russia would put his country and NATO “at war.”

Dmitry Peskov, the spokesperson for Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin, has stated that NATO's refusal to take Vladimir Putin's statements seriously regarding the supposed consequences of allowing Ukraine to attack Russian territory with long-range Western weapons is "provocative and dangerous".

Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed that NATO is escalating a direct war with Russia as the U.S. and Britain discuss allowing NATO-provided weapons to be used by Ukraine to strike targets

Vladimir Putin's crony and foreign policy hawk Sergei Karaganov has repeatedly called for Russia to use nuclear weapons as a means to protect the country from Western aggression

On Wednesday, the Kremlin condemned comments by outgoing NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg as “dangerous”, Reuters reports. Stoltenberg had suggested that allowing Ukraine to use Western long-range missiles to strike Russian territory would not trigger an escalation from Moscow.