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Putin says Russia will respond swiftly if it thinks Europe is provoking it

02 October 2025 21:04 (UTC +04:00)

President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Russia will respond swiftly if it thinks Europe is provoking it and said that almost all of the U.S.-led NATO alliance was now fighting against Russia over Ukraine, APA reports citing Reuters.

"All the NATO countries are fighting with us," Putin said.

NATO members, he said, were providing Ukraine with intelligence, weapons and training. Should Europe provoke Russia, he said, the response would be swift.

"If anyone still has a desire to compete with us in the military sphere, as we say, feel free, let them try," Putin said. "Russia's countermeasures will not be long in coming."

Putin dismissed U.S. President Donald Trump's claims that Russia was "a paper tiger", saying Russia had the most capable army in the world.

He suggested that if Russia was a paper tiger then NATO was too and challenged the West to deal with the paper tiger if that was what it thought it was up against.

'PAPER TIGER'?

Russia, Putin said, had shown over the centuries that it would respond quickly if provoked. ,

"The elites of united Europe continue to whip up hysteria," he said. "It turns out that war with the Russians is almost on the threshold. They repeat this nonsense, this mantra over and over again."

He dismissed the idea that Russia would one day attack a member of the NATO military alliance as "impossible to believe".

"Genuinely, I just want to say: cool down, sleep calmly, and take care of your own problems. Just take a look at what's happening on the streets of European cities," Putin said.