Valery Gerasimov, Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, named two new threats to Russia's military security. In an interview with Arguments and Facts newspaper, Gerasimov said that the incorporation of Finland and Sweden into the North Atlantic Alliance was one of such threats.
"To date, aspirations of the North Atlantic Alliance to expand with the help of Finland and Sweden, as well as the use of Ukraine as a tool for waging a hybrid war against our country have become such threats," Valery Gerasimov, Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces said.
According to Gerasimov, in order to neutralise these threats, the Russian administration set the task to adjust the Plan for the Construction and Development of the Russian Armed Forces.
Modern-day Russia has never come across such intensity of hostilities as during the special operation in Ukraine, Gerasimov believes. In addition, the Russian Armed Forces are forced to confront almost all countries of the collective West, the head of the General Staff noted.
"It is almost all of the collective West that is standing up against our country and its armed forces today," Gerasimov added.
In the interview, Gerasimov also said that the General Staff was taking all measures to achieve the goals of the special operation, as well as to ensure Russia's military security.
Partial mobilisation was carried out in Russia in order to stabilise the situation and protect the new Russian territories. The mobilisation system was not fully prepared to meet the new economic relations, and one had to correct that on the go, he added.