Vladimir Putin threatens to lift missile restraints in warning to west
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Vladimir Putin has said Russia may lift its self-imposed restrictions on developing short- and medium-range missiles and would keep its non-strategic nuclear forces on constant combat alert, as he warned that the west was pushing Moscow to âa red line we canât step back fromâ.
The Russian president said in a speech to the defence ministry on Monday that he was concerned about the US deploying short- and medium-range missiles abroad and warned that Nato was threatening Russia in Europe and âbeyond its historical zone of responsibilityâ in Asia.
He added that Russia would step up production of hypersonic weapons â such as the new Oreshnik ballistic missile, which it fired at Ukraine for the first time last month â in response to any US deployments of short- and medium-range missiles in Europe and Asia.
Andrei Belousov, appointed defence minister in a reshuffle in May, told the same audience that Russiaâs military needed to be ready for medium-term scenarios including âa possible military conflict with Nato in Europe in the next decadeâ.
European leaders have warned since early this year that Russia is preparing for a broader conflict with the western military alliance beyond its continuing invasion of Ukraine.
But Putin â whose full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 triggered the current confrontation â said talk of a Russian threat to the continent was a âmythâ and blamed any escalation on the US and its European allies.
He accused the US of âencouraging the further escalation of the conflictâ in Ukraine by arming the government in Kyiv, including with advanced western weapons it has used for strikes deep inside Russian territory.
Putin said Russia had taken the upper hand on the battlefield this year by capturing 189 towns, making 2024 a âlandmark in achieving the goalsâ of the invasion. Russiaâs defence industry, boosted by record Rbs13.5tn ($130bn) spending in next yearâs budget, had helped bolster Russiaâs forces by developing new guidance systems for missiles and producing new kinds of attack drones, he said.
Russia had also managed to sustain its forces by recruiting about 1,000 volunteers a day to fight in the war, Putin said. This year, he added, Russia had recruited 430,000 men compared with 300,000 a year earlier, helping it turn the tide against Ukraineâs outmanned and outgunned forces.
But the current levels of defence spending, Putin acknowledged, could not be raised âto infinityâ at the expense of other priorities such as science, education, and healthcare.
The splurge on defence spending has fuelled an economic boom but also sharply increased inflation and created a labour shortage in civilian sectors, with workers attracted by higher salaries in defence factories working three shifts around the clock.
Putin said Russia was taking âadditional measures to ensure [our] security and that of our alliesâ but wanted to avoid getting âdragged into a full-scale arms race at the expense of the social-economic development of our countryâ.
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2024-12-16 14:33:03