NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte charged Russia with violating Romanian airspace on Friday after a meeting of the alliance's defence ministers in Brussels. Rutte expressed full solidarity for Romania and commended the Romanian Air Force and NATO's top military commander for their "quick and effective response" to the incident on Thursday.

Romanian forces scrambled their fighter jets on the night of 18-19 October because of a small Russian air target approaching Romania's airspace and violating the border. Source: Romanian Ministry of Defence on the morning of 19 October,

NATO has called on Romania to "effectively respond" to recent incidents involving violations of its airspace by Russian missiles and drones, says NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte during a press conference at a meeting of defense ministers.

Ukraine will be a member of NATO in the future, Secretary-General of NATO Mark Rutte said Thursday in Brussels, where he is chairing a meeting of NATO ministers of defense.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said a formal invitation to join Nato is “the only way” Ukraine can survive Russia’s invasion, as the Ukrainian president urged western allies to endorse his plan to end the war.

Russian ruler Vladimir Putin has described as a provocation the speculation about Ukraine's possible creation of nuclear weapons and said that any step in this direction "will entail a corresponding reaction".