Deputy head of Russia's Security Council Dmitry Medvedev.

Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev said on Wednesday that the European Union had evolved into an enemy of Russia that posed a direct threat to its security, and Moscow was now opposed to Ukraine joining the bloc.

Russia has long been opposed to Ukraine joining the NATO Western military alliance - one of the reasons it gives for its decision to launch a full-scale war against Ukraine in 2022.

But it has in the past been more relaxed about the prospect of Kyiv becoming a member of the EU. President Vladimir Putin said in June 2022 that Russia had "nothing against" that, and the Kremlin said as recently as February that joining the bloc was Ukraine's sovereign right.

However, Medvedev, who is now deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council, said that the EU had shifted from being an economic bloc dedicated to preventing war into what he called a politicised anti-Russian organisation that was slowly turning into a military bloc.

"Brussels today is a real enemy of Russia. In its current twisted form, the European Union is no less of a threat to us than the North Atlantic Alliance," Medvedev wrote on Telegram.

He said it was therefore wrong to say now that Ukraine should be free to "join anything you like" apart from NATO.

"The EU, stuffed with weapons...is a direct threat to Russia. That is exactly how it should be treated. At least until it changes its approach to us," he added. "Thus, the so-called (idea of) Ukraine in the EU is a danger for our country".

Ukraine applied for EU membership shortly after the start of the war in 2022 and was granted candidate status later that year.

Medvedev said that bilateral cooperation between Moscow and certain individual EU member states should, however, continue. He did not name specific countries, but central European neighbours Hungary and Slovakia have taken pains to maintain cordial relations with Putin since the start of the war.

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Russian official says Moscow has 'no intention' of supplying Iran with warheads, following Trump taunts

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said that Moscow is not planning to supply Iran with nuclear warheads, after President Donald Trump mocked him for suggesting that other countries would step in and provide Iran with nuclear weapons after the U.S. strikes against Iranian nuclear facilities.

Medvedev, now the deputy chairman of the Security Council of Russia, originally said Sunday that Iran would continue to advance its nuclear program and would receive assistance from other nations to do so.

Although Medvedev did not specify any countries, he clarified later Monday that he was not talking about Russia.

"I condemn the U.S. strike on Iran — it failed to achieve its objectives," Medvedev said in a Monday post on X. "However, Russia has no intention of supplying nuclear weapons to Iran because, unlike Israel, we are parties to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty."

"I know quite well what this would entail, having overseen our nuclear forces as president," Medvedev said. "But other countries might — and that’s what was said."

Medvedev’s statement came after Trump called him out by name in a post on Truth Social following the Russian leader’s original Sunday remarks.

"Did I hear Former President Medvedev, from Russia, casually throwing around the ‘N word’ (Nuclear!), and saying that he and other Countries would supply Nuclear Warheads to Iran? Did he really say that or, is it just a figment of my imagination? If he did say that, and, if confirmed, please let me know, IMMEDIATELY. The ‘N word’ should not be treated so casually. I guess that’s why Putin’s ‘THE BOSS,’" Trump said in a Monday Truth Social Post.

Andrea Sticker, the deputy director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ nonproliferation and biodefense program, chalked up Medvedev’s initial statement as an attempt to brag and said it was unrealistic for any country to provide such assistance to Iran.

"Medvedev's original claim was likely bluster about Russia or another country supplying Iran with nuclear weapons," Stricker said in a Monday email to Fox News Digital. "No country, including Pakistan or North Korea, would supply atomic devices to Tehran because they would be held accountable by the United States if Iran used the weapons. Moscow and Pyongyang, at least from available open-source information, appear to be standing mostly idle as their ally Iran takes a major beating."

The U.S. launched strikes late Saturday targeting key Iranian nuclear facilities, which involved more than 125 U.S. aircraft, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine told reporters Sunday.

Trump announced early Tuesday that a ceasefire had gone into effect between Israel and Iran but scolded both countries hours later following accusations from both sides that the other had violated the agreement.

Trump told reporters both Israel and Iran failed to follow the terms of the agreement, which he said is still in effect.

"I’m not happy with them. I’m not happy with Iran either but I’m really unhappy with Israel going out this morning," Trump said at the White House Tuesday morning.

"We basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don’t know what the f--- they’re doing," he said.

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Ukraine's Zelenskyy commends NATO military spending pledge from members

Past NATO summits have focused almost entirely on the war in Ukraine, now in its fourth year - but Kyiv's bid to join the alliance has been stalled since the election of U.S. President Donald Trump. The U.S. has made no new public pledges of support to Ukraine since Trump took office six months ago.

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Trump says Putin is 'difficult' on Ukraine war, calls Russian leader 'misguided'

President Donald Trump said it's "possible" that Vladimir Putin has ambitions beyond Ukraine as he closed out a NATO Summit, where allies identified Russia as one of the greatest long-term threats to the security of the alliance.

Trump also acknowledged it's been a more of slog negotiating an end to Russia's war on Ukraine than he predicted during the 2024 presidential campaign.

Putin has been "more difficult" to deal with than he anticipated, Trump said, adding he's also had "some problems" with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

"I consider him a person that's, I think, has been misguided," Trump said of Putin. "I'm very surprised, actually, I thought we would have had that settled easy."

Trump admitted that the conflict has been harder to solve than he initially thought after meeting with Zelenskyy, who he said "couldn't have been nicer." His remarks capped a shortened NATO meeting that placed less emphasis on Ukraine than during past summits to avoid friction with Trump.

A joint statement released by the alliance's 32 members reaffirmed support for Ukraine without mentioning the fight against Russia. The communique also avoided repeating a commitment to one day admit Ukraine into the alliance.

Trump says he'll consider selling Patriot missiles to Ukraine

Before his news conference Trump met with Zelenskyy behind closed doors. It was their first in-person conversation since April.

Zelenskyy said they discussed how to achieve a ceasefire with Russia. He described it a "long and substantive meeting" in a post on X.

"We covered all the truly important issues. I thank Mr. President, I thank the United States. We discussed how to achieve a ceasefire and a real peace. We spoke about how to protect our people. We appreciate the attention and the readiness to help bring peace closer," Zelenskyy said.

Trump said afterward at a press conference he would consider selling Patriot missiles to Ukraine that Zelenskyy has been offering to buy from the United States.

The Biden administration provided the air defense systems to Ukraine in U.S.-funded assistance packages.

"Ukraine is ready to buy this equipment and support American weapons manufacturers. Europe can help," Zelenskyy said after his meeting with Trump. "We also discussed the potential for co-production of drones. We can strengthen each other."

NATO reaffirms support for Ukraine

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte and other world leaders defended the decision not mention Russia's war on Ukraine in an official statement at an array of June 25 news conferences.

The declaration referred to the "long-term threat posed by Russia to Euro-Atlantic security," and noted NATO would now count members' military assistance to Ukraine as defense spending.

"Allies reaffirm their enduring sovereign commitments to provide support to Ukraine, whose security contributes to ours, and, to this end, will include direct contributions towards Ukraine’s defense and its defense industry when calculating Allies’ defense spending," the statement said.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the position of NATO "has not changed" and there is a "a real resolve" within the group to push Putin to agree to an unconditional ceasefire.

"If you're a long-term threat, you're also a short-term threat. So he is a threat now, and he is as a threat in long term," Rutte said.

Trump at his news conference said he told Putin during a call this month that he didn't want his help with Iran — he wanted him to settle his war with Ukraine.

"Vladimir Putin really has to end that war," Trump said.

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Trump will look at giving Ukraine more Patriot missiles as he calls on Putin to end war

Donald Trump said he is considering sending more Patriot missile systems to Ukraine, as he renewed calls on Russian leader Vladimir Putin to end the war.

The president added that he isn’t ruling out a new defense assistance package, when he spoke to reporters at the Nato summit in the Netherlands on Wednesday.

Trump, who has surrounded himself with isolationist-minded advisers who’ve publicly opposed continued support for Kyiv, responded, “We’ll see what happens” when asked whether the U.S. would contribute anything on top of the $8 billion pledged by NATO allies as part of the 32-member bloc’s continued support for Ukraine’s war effort.

Speaking at a press conference on the heels of a closed-door sit-down with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, Mr. Trump said there has been “a lot of spirit” in Ukraine’s fight against the invasion Putin ordered in February 2022.

Trump also appeared to shift blame for the continuation and escalation of the war to Putin, marking a dramatic reversal from how he characterized the situation during a contentious Oval Office meeting with Zelensky earlier this year.

“Vladimir Putin really has to end that war,” the president said. “People are dying at levels that people haven’t seen before for a long time.”

He recounted to reporters how he’d rebuked Putin during a recent phone call after the Russian leader offered to mediate an end to hostilities between Israel and Iran, stressing he would rather he brought an end to the conflict in Ukraine.

He later added that Putin has been “more difficult” than Zelensky, with whom Trump has had a contentious relationship dating back to his first term, when a phone call with the Ukrainian leader launched a scandal that led to the first of his two impeachment trials in the Senate.

Trump’s relationship with Putin has long been far friendlier, but even that has appeared to sour in recent months as the Russian dictator has continued to pound civilian targets in Ukraine with drones and missiles, killing thousands and complicating efforts by Trump to cajole both sides to the negotiating table.

In April, he became so irate over Putin’s attacks on civilians that he took to Truth Social to exhort the Russian leader to halt the attacks and get to the negotiating table, writing: “Vladimir, STOP! 5,000 soldiers a week are dying. Let’s get the Peace Deal DONE!”

Since then, he has floated the possibility of imposing harsh new sanctions on Moscow if Putin refuses to cooperate in the U.S.-led efforts to bring about a settlement in the three-year-old conflict.

The president’s changed view of the war and Putin’s culpability also became evident when he had an emotional exchange with a reporter for the BBC’s Ukrainian service, who asked whether the U.S. was prepared to sell more Patriot anti-air missiles to Ukraine.

Last year, the Biden administration announced they would prioritize deliveries of Patriot interceptors to Ukraine on account of Russia’s accelerated pace of aerial attacks against civilians and infrastructure, but Kyiv has had to expand their use of the missiles and has been running low on them.

Trump asked the reporter if she was currently living in Ukraine, at which point she replied that she was based in Warsaw with her children while her husband has remained in Ukraine.

The president responded: “That’s rough stuff.” He asked the journalist again to confirm that she was living outside of Ukraine and working as a reporter, replying “good” when she answered in the affirmative.

“Let me just tell you, they [Ukraine] do want to have the anti-missile missiles, as they call them, the Patriots, and we’re going to see if we can make some available,” he said.

Trump added that such weapons were “very hard to get” and “very effective”, while admitting that the U.S. had been prioritizing supplies for Israel amid that country’s ongoing wars.

“They do want that more than any other thing, as you probably know,” he said before praising her “very good question” and telling her to “say hello” to her husband for him.

Trump’s apparent openness to sending more American aid to Ukraine comes as NATO’s 32 member nations pledged to “reaffirm” what they described as “enduring sovereign commitments to provide support to Ukraine,” calling Ukrainian security efforts a contribution to NATO’s own security.

The alliance also pledged to include “direct contributions to Ukraine defense” as part of efforts to have each country meet a threshold of spending five percent of gross domestic product on defense.