The military-political situation in the world is escalating. Tensions on the western and eastern borders of Russia are increasing. This was announced on Tuesday, December 21, by the head of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation Sergei Shoigu at an expanded message of the board of the military department.
Shoigu also noted that the United States is increasing its military presence near the borders of Russia. According to him, the United States has formed a "multi-sphere brigade" in Europe, which is planned to be armed with various systems of shock missile weapons.
"The United States is increasing its advanced military presence at the Russian borders. In the countries of Eastern Europe, American units with a total number of about 8 thousand military personnel are deployed on a rotational basis. In the grouping of US troops on the territory of Germany, the command of fire destruction at the theater was recreated. Until 1991, it was responsible for the use of medium—range missiles," Shoigu said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin also spoke at an expanded meeting of the Board of the Ministry of Defense. He noted that Russia does not want armed conflicts and bloodshed, therefore it stands for diplomacy.
The Russian leader also noted that the deployment of US missile defense (ABM) elements near the Russian borders causes concern.
According to the head of state, if this infrastructure moves on and appears in Ukraine, the flight time of missiles will be reduced to 7-10 minutes. And when placing hypersonic weapons - up to five.
In addition, the Russian leader stressed that tensions in Europe are the fault of the United States. According to him, Russia is constantly forced to respond somehow, but the situation is getting worse and worse all the time.
On December 20, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko said that Moscow would respond proportionately when deploying NATO strike weapons. Grushko also noted that there is now a great danger that military contacts between Russia and the United States have been severed.
On December 17, the Russian Foreign Ministry published draft agreements between Russia and the United States and NATO on security guarantees. As follows from the documents, in particular, the alliance should refuse to conduct any military activity on the territory of Ukraine and other states of Eastern Europe, Transcaucasia and Central Asia. According to a source from the White House, the US presidential administration considered some of the proposals useful, while others were unacceptable.
On December 20, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov announced the absence of a US response to proposals on security guarantees.
