"We have not encouraged or enabled strikes outside of Ukraine, but Ukraine, as I have said before, has to make its own decisions about the best way to effectively defend itself," Blinken told reporters in Moldova.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov responded by saying that the Stoltenberg had exceeded his authority, and that his behavior had been berated by NATO members themselves.
Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov, for his part, said that the US-led military bloc was toying with military rhetoric, raising the degree of escalation and plunging into what he called a warlike "ecstasy".