Secretary-General Mark Rutte chastised some allies for moving too slowly when it comes to ramping up defense spending.

But Ukraine’s leader griped that overall, the negotiations aimed at ending Kremlin’s deadly aggression aren’t about giving his people a “fair” deal.

Ukraine has relinquished its ambition of joining the NATO military alliance in exchange for Western security guarantees as a compromise to end the war with Russia, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said ahead of talks with U.S. envoys in Berlin.

MOSCOW, Dec 14 (Reuters) - The Kremlin said on Sunday that NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte's remarks about preparing for war with Russia were irresponsible and showed that he did not really understand the devastation wrought by World War Two.

The NATO issue is what the Kremlin describes as one of the "root causes" of its war in Ukraine.

Mark Rutte said last week that Europe was Putin's "next target".

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte issued a stern warning to the organization’s allied nations on Thursday, suggesting they stand as “Russia’s next target” after Ukraine. Rutte delivered the sobering message that NATO countries are “already in harm’s way” during a keynote address at a Berlin event hosted by the Munich Security Conference.

In a speech in Berlin, Rutte said too many allies of the military alliance did not feel the urgency of Russia's threat in Europe and that they must rapidly increase defence spending and production to prevent a war on the scale of that seen by past generations.

Europe should prepare for war ‘like our grandparents endured’, warns Nato chief - Nato’s secretary general Mark Rutte said Europe is already Russia’s next target and ‘we are already in harm’s way’

If Putin is “prepared to sacrifice ordinary Russians in this way, what is he prepared to do to us?” the NATO chief said.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte warned Thursday that members of the alliance could be “Russia’s next target,” calling for a rapid rise in defense spending to prevent a war similar to those seen by past generations.

Russian strikes hit Ukraine’s Black Sea ports of Chornomorsk and Odesa, damaging three Turkish-owned civilian vessels and escalating regional tensions. Ukrainian officials said the attacks targeted civilian logistics using drones and ballistic missiles,