Putin dismisses claims Russia would attack NATO as “nonsense”

Russia has no designs on any NATO country and will not attack Poland, the Baltic states or the Czech Republic, President Vladimir Putin said late on Wednesday. According to a Kremlin transcript of the speech, Putin said that if the West supplies F-16 fighters to Ukraine then they will be shot down by Russian forces, but that NATO states themselves are not targets. "We have no aggressive intentions towards  Poland, the Baltic States or the Czechs – that is complete nonsense. It's just another way to deceive their population and extract more money from the people to carry the burden of armament on their shoulders," the Kremlin chief said.