Russia responded today to the head of European diplomacy Kaia Kallas that no external force can limit Russian military spending, Reuters reported, BTA reported.
Yesterday, Kallas said that the Russian military budget should be limited, although she did not explain how this could happen.
Today, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko said that no force can limit Russia's military budget. He added that Russia ruled out any possibility of deploying forces from the so-called "coalition of the willing" in Ukraine.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova meanwhile told reporters in Moscow that Ukraine's accession to NATO would be unacceptable for Moscow.
"For us, the threat is still NATO expansion," Zakharova told reporters in Moscow. "NATO's desire to draw Ukraine into its orbit remains a threat to us," she added.
"The membership of this country in an aggressive military alliance that has declared that it is targeting Russia and calls it a security threat in all operational environments is unacceptable for us," Zakharova said.
One of Russian President Vladimir Putin's main conditions for ending the war in Ukraine is his demand that Western leaders commit to Ukraine not being admitted to NATO, Reuters reports.
At the 2008 Bucharest summit, NATO leaders agreed that Ukraine and Georgia would one day become members of the alliance. Ukraine amended its constitution in 2019 to commit to full membership in NATO and the EU.
US President Donald Trump says US support for Ukraine's NATO membership was the cause of the war and that it will not be accepted into the alliance.
Zakharova also warned that Russia reserves the right to react sharply to Japan's plans to deploy missiles on an island off the coast of Taiwan.
Japanese Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi said on Sunday that plans to deploy medium-range surface-to-air missiles at a military base on Yonaguni Island, about 110 kilometers from Taehwa, were "steadily advancing."
Moscow has accused Tokyo of following US orders and said Japan is "pumping up these islands with weapons“ as part of a broader militarization effort.