from RT.com

The global security landscape continues to deteriorate, mostly due to the West’s destructive policies, the Russian president has said

Russia is ready to respond to any threats, President Vladimir Putin has said, adding that Moscow still supports a diplomatic path to ease tensions despite the West’s destructive policies.

Speaking ahead of the Security Council meeting on Monday, Putin sounded the alarm with regard to the “extreme danger of further deterioration” of the geopolitical situation, particularly amid the Ukraine conflict.

He added that while Russia had offered “specific ideas” to correct this trajectory, these “warnings and initiatives received no clear response.”

“There should be no doubt about this: Russia is capable of responding to any existing and newly emerging threats. Responding not with words, but through the application of… military-technical measures,” Putin warned.

He noted Moscow’s decision to abandon the unilateral moratorium on the deployment of ground-based intermediate- and shorter-range missiles last month, describing it as “a forced step” caused by the need to counter plans to deploy US- and other Western-made missiles in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region.

Putin stressed, however, that Russia is not interested in warmongering and saber-rattling. “We are confident in the reliability and effectiveness of our national deterrent forces, but at the same time we are not interested in further escalating tensions or fueling an arms race.” 

He added that Russia has always prioritized “political and diplomatic methods for maintaining international peace, based on the principles of equality, indivisibility of security, and mutual consideration of interests.”

Putin signaled that Moscow is ready to prolong the 2010 New START Treaty, the last remaining arms control pact between Russia and the US, which expires in February. It limits each side to no more than 1,550 deployed strategic nuclear warheads and 700 deployed delivery systems, and provides for inspections and data exchanges to verify compliance.

This initiative, Putin said, “could make a significant contribution to creating an atmosphere conducive to substantive strategic dialogue with the United States.”

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And related: The Deutsche Heer (Army) estimates the number of casualties it expects in its forthcoming war with Russia

The German armed forces would expect to suffer 1,000 wounded soldiers a day in the event of a conflict with Russia, according to the head of the Bundeswehr’s medical service. Moscow has repeatedly denied any plans to attack NATO nations, calling such allegations “nonsense.”

“Realistically, we are talking about a figure of around 1,000 wounded troops per day,” Surgeon General Ralf Hoffmann told Reuters on Monday, when asked about the Bundeswehr’s potential casualty rate. The military is looking at hospital trains and buses as it considers its potential needs, he added.

The Bundeswehr would also need German hospitals to allocate some 15,000 beds for it as soldiers would be mostly treated in civilian medical facilities after evacuation, according to Hoffmann.

Berlin has repeatedly spoken about the possibility of a direct military confrontation between NATO and Russia since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022. Germany’s chief of defense staff, General Carsten Breuer, had previously stated that the nation must be ready to confront Moscow by 2029.

Earlier this year, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov warned that “Germany is becoming dangerous again” in response to a statement by German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius suggesting that the nation’s troops were ready to kill Russian soldiers in the event of a confrontation. Peskov has also called Chancellor Friedrich Merz a “fierce apologist for confrontation with Russia.”