A deliberate attack on NATO energy supplies will bring about a “united and determined response”, the alliance leader promised.
General Secretary Jens Stoltenberg has pledged to strengthen critical infrastructure protection in response to damage to Nord Stream gas pipelines.
EU believes three pipeline leaks last month were the work of sabotage and suspicion fell on Russiabut it is unclear who was responsible.
Mr. Stoltenberg said NATO doubled its presence in the Baltic and North Sea to over 30 vessels supported by air and submarine activities.
Putin ‘moves Iranian drones to Belarus’ – Latest Ukraine War Updates
In a speech on Tuesday, he also said the alliance was watching Russia’s nuclear forces closely as the country was “losing on the battlefield” in Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Moscow has issued yet another warning to the West about its involvement in the war in Ukraine.
Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Russia would take adequate countermeasures in response to the “increasing involvement” of the West.
In comments reported by state news agency RIA, he said: “We warn and hope they realize the danger of an uncontrolled escalation in Washington and other Western capitals.”
Russian bombs rained down on Ukraine, killing at least 14 people on Monday.
Vladimir Poutine said the strikes were in retaliation for his “terrorist action” against Russian territory – the attack on the Kerch Strait bridge in occupied Crimea – but Ukraine rejected this claim of “provocation”.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has vowed to make battlefield ‘more painful’ for Russian troops in response to rocket attacks and declared air defense to be the “number one priority”.
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Despite the remarkable Ukrainian successes on the battlefield – both at the beginning of the war with the defense of Kyiv and more recently with counterattacks in Kharkiv and Kherson regions – the war could go on for decades, said an expert.
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September: NATO “could sink the entire Black Sea Fleet”
Sky News security and defense analyst Professor Michael Clarke said the war was likely to be a “generational struggle” and could be an “eternal conflict” until “something changes in European security or Russia”.
Mr Clarke said the current crisis in Ukraine was the “second war” and the first war was in 2014 when Russia annexed Crimea.
He added: “My feeling is that next year there will be a ceasefire in which the Ukrainians will be better placed and this ceasefire will be unstable and it will collapse and there will be a third war, then a ceasefire and a fourth war.
“We are dealing here with an existential struggle because the Russian establishment thinks that Ukraine has no right to exist and they will not change their minds in the short term.
“It will probably be a generational struggle. Let’s say it will last 30, 40 or 50 years.”
