Lavrov: EU becoming militarized like NATO

Russia's top diplomat has warned that the European Union "is becoming militarized at a record rate" and aggressive in its goal of containing Russia. 

Sergey Lavrov told a news conference on Tuesday that he has no doubts that there is now "very little difference" between the EU and NATO.

The Russian minister said they recently signed a declaration, which he said essentially states that the 31-member NATO military alliance will ensure the security of the 27-member EU political and economic organization.

He was apparently referring to a Jan 19 EU-NATO declaration on their "strategic partnership "which calls Russia's special military operation in Ukraine "the gravest threat to Euro-Atlantic security in decades", The Associated Press reported.

Russia has long complained about NATO's expansion, especially toward his country.

"NATO never had any intention of stopping," the Russian minister said, pointing to the recent EU-NATO declaration and actions in recent years that saw non-NATO members "increasingly taking part in NATO military exercises and other actions that were meant to synchronize the military programs of NATO members and neutral states".

Lavrov said Russia was promised on several occasions that NATO would not expand, but "those were lies".

"No one needs World War III, but it seems someone is ready to go to the very end," Lavrov said.

Fresh expulsions

Finland joined NATO earlier this month. The Nordic country's membership doubles Russia's border with NATO, the world's largest security alliance.

Sweden, an EU member, is also seeking NATO membership and is hoping for final approval soon. Its foreign ministry said on Tuesday that it was expelling five Russian diplomats, as Russia and Western countries have engaged in tit-for-tat expulsions since last year.

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg defiantly declared last week that Ukraine's "rightful place" is in the military alliance and pledged more support for the country on his first visit to Kyiv since the conflict broke out. The Kremlin responded by repeating that preventing Ukraine from joining NATO is still a key goal of its military operation, arguing that Kyiv's membership in the alliance would pose an existential threat to Moscow.