Military

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has pledged to help Bulgaria, via the Pentagon, with the supply of replacement resources of many weapons.

This was stated by the acting foreign minister and future ambassador to NATO Nikolay Milkov to Bulgarian journalists in Brussels. He participated in the meeting of the first diplomats of the member countries of the pact.

Sweden needs to take further steps for Turkey to ratify its NATO membership bid, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Wednesday, a day after Finland formally joined the military alliance.

According to him, if the former leader of the so-called Kosovo Liberation Army is found guilty, it will mean that NATO fought against Milosevic's regime in 1999 with the help of a war criminal.

Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias and Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu met briefly on the sidelines of a NATO meeting of foreign ministers in Brussels on Tuesday.

In a post on his official Twitter account, Dendias said he also spoke with the foreign ministers of Albania, Canada, Croatia, Hungary, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Norway and Spain. 

"The war of the Russian Federation against Ukraine was the main factor with a destabilizing influence on the strategic environment, which determined the national security challenges.

"I'm tempted to say that we should thank (Russian President Vladimir) Putin because he was able to accelerate something that he claimed he was trying to prevent." This was stated by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on the occasion of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the upcoming accession of Finland to NATO today.

Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias was in Brussels on Tuesday to attend a meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Commission (NUC), which will be preceded by a ceremony welcoming Finland into the alliance. 

The flag-raising ceremony at NATO headquarters for the alliance's 31st member is being attended by Finnish President Sauli Niinisto and government ministers.

Day 405 of the invasion of Ukraine. Summary of key events in the last 24 hours:

Finland joined the NATO military alliance Tuesday, dealing a major blow to Russia with a historic realignment of the continent triggered by Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.

With the handing over of documents, the Nordic nation officially entered the world's biggest security alliance, doubling its border with Russia.

Finland is poised to join NATO on Tuesday, a historic realignment brought on by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, but the head of the military alliance said it would not send more troops to the Nordic country unless it asked for help.