Russia warned the West on Wednesday that it will view US and NATO vehicles transporting weapons on Ukrainian territory as legitimate targets, just hours after Sweden signaled it was likely to apply for membership in the defense alliance.
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A columnist in the Swedish paper Svenska Dagbladet wrote that Sweden's Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson has already made the decision in favor of joining the organization and will likely submit the official request when Madrid hosts a NATO conference in June
According to the publication, the prime minister was likely to convene a special meeting of her party's governing body in which she might seek official backing for the move, which will be the culmination of an intra-party dialogue that was launched this week.
Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told the TASS news agency in an interview on Wednesday that the US and NATO must rethink their strategy of supplying weapons to Ukraine lest they become entangled in war.
"We are warning that US-NATO weapons transport across Ukrainian territory will be considered by us as legal military targets," TASS quoted him as saying.
"We are making the Americans and other Westerners understand that attempts to slow down our special operation, to inflict maximum damage on Russian contingents and formations of the DPR and LPR (Donetsk and Luhansk People's republics) will be harshly suppressed," he said.
Finland will make a decision about whether to apply to join the 30-member NATO alliance in the next few weeks, Prime Minister Sanna Marin said on Wednesday.
