Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that NATO's push to ramp up defense spending was not a "threat" to Russia, days before the alliance was set to sign off on a plan to boost its military capacity across Europe.

In a late-night press conference, the Russian leader also said his troops would not stop pushing forward in Ukraine and sought to undermine his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

The Western military alliance will hold a crucial summit in The Hague next week to discuss increasing defense spending to 5% of gross domestic product, under pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump.