Sweden and Finland are formally already members of NATO - their official admission will take place within 24 hours.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg issued an emergency statement announcing that Sweden and Finland, whose admission to the Alliance was agreed about 12 hours ago, will become new members of NATO within the next 24 hours. Formally, these countries are already members of the North Atlantic Alliance, and their official admission to the military bloc will be announced today.

According to the NATO Secretary General, within the ongoing negotiations, it was decided that Sweden and Finland, after the return of Turkey's veto, will become members of the North Atlantic Alliance within the next 24 hours. The haste of such a decision has not yet been commented on, however, it is known that all NATO countries fully supported the admission of the two Scandinavian countries to the Western military bloc.

The Russian side has not yet reacted to the current statement by Stoltenberg, however, NATO expansion makes Sweden and Finland priority targets, since both countries will already pose a direct threat to Russia in NATO.