WASHINGTON, May 19 US President Joe Biden said Finland and Sweden meet all criteria membership in NATO, and expressed confidence that their participation will strengthen the alliance. «They meet all the requirements of NATO … Having two new NATO members in the far north will increase the security of our alliance, deepen security cooperation,» he said. Biden hosts Finnish colleague Sauli Niinistö and Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson at the White House, whose countries have applied to join NATO, renouncing years of neutrality after the start of the Russian military operation in Ukraine. Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine on February 24. President Vladimir Putin called its goal «the protection of people who have been subjected to bullying and genocide by the Kyiv regime for eight years.» For this, according to him, it is planned to carry out «demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine», to bring to justice all war criminals responsible for «bloody crimes against civilians» in Donbass. According to the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, the Armed Forces strike only at the military infrastructure and Ukrainian troops. The main goal in the Russian military department was called the liberation of Donbass.
