Russian President Vladimir Putin warned NATO and the US Tuesday that any deployment of troops or missiles in Ukraine would cross a “red line” and prompt a military response.
“The emergence of such threats represents a ‘red line’ for us,” the Russian leader said. “I hope that it will not get to that and common sense and responsibility for their own countries and the global community will eventually prevail.”
Putin also threatened to retaliate using the Kremlin’s latest weapon, a Tsirkon hypersonic cruise missile Russia successfully test-fired earlier this month that can travel nine times the speed of sound.
“If some kind of strike systems appear on the territory of Ukraine, the flight time to Moscow will be 7-10 minutes, and five minutes in the case of a hypersonic weapon being deployed,” Putin said.
“What are we to do in such a scenario?” he continued. “We will have to then create something similar in relation to those who threaten us in that way. And we can do that now.”
Putin’s remarks came as Secretary of State Antony Blinken and NATO General Secretary Jens Stoltenberg cautioned Putin against taking any aggressive action against Ukraine amid a buildup of Russian troops and equipment on Ukraine’s eastern border.
“Any escalatory actions by Russia would be a great concern to the United States … and any renewed aggression would trigger serious consequences,” Blinken told reporters on Tuesday during a news conference with his Latvian counterpart in the Baltic capital of Riga.
Blinken added that the massing of troops along a border is a standard part of Russia’s playbook on how to destabilize a country.
“And part of that playbook is to attempt to create and manufacture a so-called provocation as justification for something that Russia was planning to do all along,” said the secretary, who noted that NATO allies will meet on Wednesday about the standoff.
“And so whether what’s been reported fits into that playbook, I don’t know, but as I’ve already said on a couple of occasions … we are very concerned about the movements we’ve seen along Ukraine’s border,” Blinken concluded.
“There will be a high price to pay for Russia if they once again use force against the independence of the nation Ukraine,” Stoltenberg chimed in.
Also on Tuesday, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmygal said Russia is “absolutely” behind a suspected plot to topple the country’s pro-Western government because it has made moves to join the European Union.
“We have secret data which demonstrates the special intentions (to foment a coup),” Shmygal claimed to Reuters.
Shmygal’s comments echoed those by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky last week.
With Post wires
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