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Vladimir Putin has said that Russia may lift its own restrictions on developing short- and medium-range missiles and will keep its non-strategic nuclear forces on constant combat alert, as he warned that the West would target Moscow. Pushing towards "a red line". Can't back down."

The Russian president said in a speech to the Defense Ministry on Monday that he was concerned about the US deployment of short- and medium-range missiles abroad and warned that NATO was threatening Russia in Europe and "its responsibility" in Asia. "beyond the historical realm of

He added that Russia would increase production of hypersonic weapons - Like the new Oranic ballistic missilewhich it fired over Ukraine for the first time last month - in response to any US deployment of short- and medium-range missiles in Europe and Asia.

Andrei Belosov has been appointed Defense Minister in a reshuffle in Maytold the same audience that Russia's military needs to be prepared for medium-term scenarios, including "a possible military conflict with NATO in Europe in the next decade."

European leaders have warned since the beginning of this year that Russia is preparing for a wider conflict beyond its continued engagement with the Western military alliance. The invasion of Ukraine.

but Putin - whose full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 triggered the current conflict - said talk of a Russian threat to the continent was a "myth" and blamed any escalation on the US and its European allies.

He accused the government in Kiev of "encouraging the escalation of conflict" in Ukraine by arming it with weapons, including advanced Western weapons it has used to strike deep inside Russian territory.

Putin said Russia had gained the upper hand on the battlefield by capturing 189 towns this year, making it a milestone for achieving the 2024 offensive targets. He said Russia's defense industry will spend a record Rbs13.5tn ($130bn) in next year's budget to help strengthen Russia's military by developing new guidance systems for missiles and developing new types of attack drones. is

Putin said Russia also managed to maintain its forces by recruiting about 1,000 volunteers a day to fight in the war. This year, he added, Russia had recruited 430,000 men, compared with 300,000 a year earlier, helping to turn the tide against Ukraine's external and armed forces.

But the current level of defense spending, Putin acknowledged, cannot be increased "infinitely" at the expense of other priorities such as science, education and health care.

The increase in defense spending has fueled the economic boom but also spurred inflation and created labor shortages in the civilian sector, with workers lured by high wages in defense factories working around the clock in three shifts.

Putin said that Russia is "taking additional measures to ensure that [our] security and that of our allies" but wanted to avoid "being dragged into an all-out arms race at the expense of our country's socio-economic development".