According to Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, the actions of “one or two” NATO members could see the conflict spill over the border of Ukraine and become “out of control.” Ms Zakharova said the West is “walking on the edge of the abyss” and “pushing the world to the edge.”

The speculation is that both Finland and Denmark are the NATO members that Zakharova mentioned. With the Danish government announced their plan to increase their spending on the country’s defense by 40.5 billion Danish crowns ($5.9bn) over the next five years.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told reporters  “We are not rearming in Denmark because we want war, destruction, or suffering. We are rearming right now to avoid war and in a world where the international order is being challenged,”

Finland is also preparing to increase its defense after Putin said that it will be sending troops to the Russian-Finland border. Finland’s prime minister Petteri Orpo has been speaking to the European Parliament and said that Russia is “evidently” preparing for a “long conflict” with the West, but it is not “invincible.” Putin said in a recent interview that Finland’s recent accession to NATO is a threat to Russia. He said that the accession was “an absolutely meaningless step from the point of view of ensuring [Finland’s] own national interests”

NATO countries are under pressure to increase spending on defence, with US presidential hopeful Donald Trump saying earlier this year he would “encourage” Russia to attack members who didn’t pay their “bills”. The comments were widely condemned.

Warning for the US and nuclear war

The Russian leader was asked how he would respond if the US ever sent ground troops to Ukraine. Putin said that if that were to happen then they would see this move as a military intervention and would act accordingly. “[In the US] there are enough specialists in the field of Russian-American relations and in the field of strategic restraint [to stop that from happening]” he said. “Therefore, I don’t think that here everything is rushing to it [nuclear confrontation], but we are ready for this.” If the US conducted nuclear tests, Russia might do the same, he added. “It’s not necessary [for the US to conduct tests]… but I don’t rule out that we can do the same.”

Mr Putin also addressed the prospect of a nuclear war with the West.  “From a military-technical point of view, we are, of course, ready,” he said.  “Weapons exist to use them,” he said. “We have our principles.” However, he later expressed that using such weapons was not the Kremlin’s desire.  “Why do we need to use weapons of mass destruction? There has never been such a need.”