Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned that Russia was reviewing its military doctrine to allow the use of nuclear arms against a non-nuclear state. Putin said that under the proposed doctrine, an attack on Russia by a non-nuclear state backed by a nuclear state would be viewed as “a joint attack.”

Rutte, however, has dismissed Putin’s saber rattling, calling it “reckless and irresponsible.”

His comments come at a time when Western allies come under increasing pressure to give their approval to Ukraine to use long-range Western-supplied missiles on targets deep inside Russia.

Speaking at his first press conference since taking over NATO’s lead role, Rutte said: “The more we help Ukraine at the moment, the sooner [the war] will end.”

The former Dutch prime minister said, however, that while he supported Ukraine’s right to strike Russian territory using Western weapons, the decision would ultimately rest with each individual nation.

Highlighting the dangers of Putin’s leadership, Rutte said: “The cost of supporting Ukraine is far, far lower than the cost we would face if we allowed Putin to get his way.”

While admitting that the situation at the front was “difficult,” Rutte underlined that the Russian gains remained limited and had come at a high cost. According to estimates quoted by Rutte, the war is currently costing Russia 1,000 casualties per day.

Rutte also used his first press conference to map out his three core goals, those being to provide continued support to Ukraine, to ramp up NATO’s collective deterrence, and to forge relationships with other global regions, such as the Indo-Pacific.

The new NATO chief also repeated calls for NATO countries to spend more on defense, while acknowledging that the Netherlands should have reached its 2% defense spending target far sooner.