MOSCOW. Feb 28 (Interfax) - Russian press secretary Dmitry Peskov said in an interview published in the Izvestia newspaper on Tuesday that NATO countries, acting as a single bloc, are de facto at war with Russia given the presence of their weapons in Ukraine, the work of their intelligence services and the continuing weapons deliveries.
"In fact, NATO is currently acting as a single bloc already not as our hypothetical adversaries but as enemies. Their intelligence is working against us 24 hours a day, their weapons, as [Russian President] Vladimir Putin stressed in a recent interview, are provided to Ukraine free of charge to shoot at our military, not to mention that they are shooting at Ukrainian citizens, and shelling Ukrainian cities and villages. Pledges are made and collective decisions are adopted within NATO on new supplies, new batches of weapons, which are getting increasingly more sophisticated. These countries - France, the UK, and the U.S. - are now within one organization that is de facto waging war against us, is in a state of direct armed confrontation with us, given the presence of their weapons in Ukraine," Peskov said.
"We should call things by their proper names, without concealing anything or smoothing rough edges. They need to understand this, though probably it is noticeable how sensitive they are in this area as they repeat every time like a mantra that they do not want to be participants in this conflict," he said.