Russia: NATO pursues 'Cold War schemes,' seeks escalation in Ukraine

Russia has accused NATO of pursuing "Cold War schemes" by whipping up tensions with weapons deliveries to Ukraine and working to divide the world based on ideological differences.
Moscow delivered its scathing assessment hours after a high-stakes, two-day NATO summit in Lithuania wrapped up, during which questions about Ukraine's future in the Western military alliance were debated.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who was at the summit, was offered long-term security promises by leading powers and assurances that Ukraine would eventually receive an offer to join NATO, but was given no concrete timeline.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said NATO's vow to further build up Ukraine's military capabilities across land, sea and air showed that Kiev's Western backers were "plotting a course for escalation."
"They issued a new set of promises to supply the Kiev regime with increasingly more advanced and long-range weapons in order to prolong the conflict of attrition as long as possible," the statement issued late Wednesday said.
Russia launched its unprovoked war against the neighbouring country more than 16 months ago. It occupies about a fifth of Ukraine and shells Ukrainian towns and villages daily. Thousands of civilians have died in the fighting and millions have fled their homes.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has, in part, portrayed his invasion as a response to NATO's eastward expansion and to protect against the possibility of Ukraine's admission.
NATO's summit in Vilnius demonstrated "that the organization has completely returned to the Cold War schemes," the Foreign Ministry statement said, adding that Western powers were determined to divide "the world into democracies and autocracies."
"The crosshairs of this policy of searching for enemies is aimed at Russia," the ministry said.