Russia must be ready to fight NATO in Europe in next decade, minister says

MOSCOW - Russia's defence minister said on Monday that Moscow must be ready to fight the NATO military alliance in Europe in the next decade, as President Vladimir Putin said he believed the Ukraine war was turning in Moscow's favour.

Andrei Belousov, Putin's defence chief, cited a NATO summit in July, and military doctrines in the U.S. and other NATO members, as evidence that Moscow had to prepare for direct conflict with a more assertive NATO in the coming years.

"The activities of the Ministry of Defence are based on ... ensuring full readiness for any scenario in the medium term, including a possible military conflict with NATO in Europe in the next decade," Belousov told an audience including Putin at his ministry.

Belousov set out a raft of changes and reforms that he said were needed, "taking into account the nature of future military conflicts".

He cited U.S. plans to modernise its nuclear forces, the opening of a U.S. missile defence base in Poland, new NATO combat readiness plans, and plans announced at the NATO summit to deploy U.S. medium-range missiles in Germany in 2026.

He said the U.S. could soon have hypersonic missiles available that could reach Moscow in eight minutes.

Putin told the same gathering that the large numbers volunteering for service were turning the tide of the Ukraine war in Moscow's favour, as open-source maps suggest his army is advancing at the fastest pace since 2022.

"Russian troops have a firm grip on the strategic initiative along the entire line of contact. This year alone, 189 population centres have been liberated," he said.

He said roughly 430,000 Russians had signed army contracts this year, up from roughly 300,000 last year.

Belousov said Russia had pushed Ukrainian forces out of almost 4,500 sq km (1,737 sq miles) of territory this year, and was taking about 30 sq km (11.5 sq miles) a day.

Putin accused the West of pushing Russia to its "red lines" - situations it has publicly made clear it will not tolerate - and said Moscow had been forced to respond.

"They (Western leaders) are simply scaring their own population that we are going to attack someone there using the pretext of the mythical Russian threat," said Putin.

"The tactic is very simple: they push us to 'a red line', from which we cannot retreat, we start to respond and then they immediately scare their population."

He said Russia was watching U.S. development of short- and medium-range missiles with great concern and would lift its own voluntary restrictions on the stationing of such missiles if the U.S. decided to put them into service.

(Reporting by Dmitry Antonov, Andrew Osborn, Vladimir Soldatkin and Lucy Papachristou; Editing by Kevin Liffey)