NATO troops News

Putin said that Russia would respond in kind if NATO deployed troops and infrastructure in Finland and Sweden after they join the US-led military alliance "With Sweden and Finland, we don`t have the problems that we have with Ukraine. They want to join NATO, go ahead," Putin told Russian state TV "But they must understand there was no threat before, while now, if military contingents and infrastructure are deployed there, we will have to respond in kind..."

Thousands of NATO troops hit the ground in Poland in a massive show of force Tuesday as the alliance launched its biggest war games in eastern Europe since the Cold War.

The Taliban Monday seized half of an Afghan provincial capital, sending panicked residents fleeing as the hardline Islamists for the first time breached a major city since being ousted from power in 2001.