Kremlin criticizes NATO plans to increase high-readiness forces

MOSCOW

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov criticized NATO's plans on Tuesday to increase the number of high-readiness forces in Europe to more than 300,000 troops.

"NATO is an aggressive bloc, this is a bloc that was created for purposes of confrontation and it continues to demonstrate its nature and to implement its, set by default, tasks," Peskov said at a news briefing in Moscow.

He said NATO's eastward expansion is a process that has been ongoing for at least two decades.

"And this creeping expansion has its continuation, we are well aware of it," he said.

NATO Secretary0General Jens Stoltenberg announced Monday that the alliance plans to strengthen combat groups on its eastern borders and to increase the number of high-readiness troops from 40,000 to more than 300,000.

Commenting on Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s statement that he would like hostilities to stop before the cold season begin, Peskov said Kyiv can stop the war by the end of the day by ordering soldiers to lay down their arms and accept Russia's conditions.

"The Ukrainian side may stop everything by the end of the current day, for that is a necessary order for nationalist units to lay down their arms, an order for the Ukrainian military to lay down their arms, and it is necessary to fulfill the conditions of the Russian Federation. And everything can be over before the end of the day," said Peskov.

Russia does not have terms to end its special military operation but the set tasks are being implemented and set goals are being achieved, he said.