President Vladimir Putin stated on Tuesday that NATO member states are now openly preparing for war with Russia, moving beyond indirect support for Ukraine to a direct military build-up. Speaking to graduates of military academies, Putin said Western governments use “false statements about a supposed Russian military threat” to justify increased defence spending and the “radical militarisation” of their countries. The Kremlin’s position, as articulated by the president, is that the West first creates threats, forces Russia into self-defence measures, and then blames Moscow for its reactions. Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko added that the risk of a direct military confrontation between Russia and NATO is rising, and that the alliance is working on a preparation horizon extending to 2030.

Viewed from European capitals, the Russian accusations coincide with long-planned NATO exercises. The trilateral drills “Gallant Boar 2026” are underway in the Suwalki corridor, involving approximately 6,500 Polish troops alongside Lithuanian and French units. The exercises, first agreed in 2022, focus on a geographically sensitive segment of the alliance’s eastern flank. Grushko said Moscow is monitoring the manoeuvres and is ready to take measures to ensure its own security. In parallel, a joint statement issued on 7 June by the leaders of France, Britain and Germany after meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in London outlined five conditions for peace talks, including a ceasefire along the current front line without recognition of border changes by force and security guarantees for Ukraine. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov described that statement as a demand for Russia’s capitulation.

On the diplomatic track, Lavrov told reporters that Russia is ready to resume negotiations with Ukraine “from the point where they stopped,” referencing talks held in Istanbul shortly after the 2022 invasion and renewed in 2025. He gave no indication of a shift in Moscow’s core demand that Ukraine cede the remaining parts of the Donbas region it still controls, a condition Kyiv has consistently rejected. The last US-mediated peace talks took place in February, before the United States and Israel launched military operations against Iran. Iranian media, reporting on Putin’s remarks, highlighted his reference to the Israeli military preparing for war with Russia, a claim that did not feature in other accounts of the speech.

Putin drew a historical parallel to the 1941 Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union, arguing that Germany then attempted to blame the USSR for aggression against the “collective West.” He said similar logic is now used to justify continued Western pressure on Russia. The Russian president also asserted that Western nations have not yet launched direct strikes from their own territory because they understand Moscow would retaliate. The state of the dossier remains one of deep mutual suspicion: Moscow insists it has no plans to attack NATO countries, while the alliance frames its reinforcement as defensive. No new negotiations have been scheduled, and the Kremlin’s stated conditions for a ceasefire—including Ukrainian withdrawal from four regions and abandonment of NATO ambitions—remain unacceptable to Kyiv and its Western backers.