In Response To NATO Warning, Russian President Vladimir Putin Calls For Hypersonic Weapons

JAKARTA - President Vladimir Putin said Russia would be forced to act if US-led NATO placed missiles in Ukraine that could strike Moscow within minutes.

This was conveyed by President Putin in response to warnings issued by the Secretary General of NATO, as well as the United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

Russia will pay a high price for any new military aggression against Ukraine, NATO and the United States warned on Tuesday when Western military alliances meet to discuss Moscow's possible motives for amassing troops near Ukraine's borders.

Ukraine, a former Soviet Union state that now aspires to join the European Union and NATO, has become a major point of tension between Russia and the West as relations deteriorated to their lowest level in three decades since the Cold War ended.

"There will be a high price for Russia if they once again use force against the independence of the Ukrainian nation," NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters, citing Reuters on December 1.

Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken echoed Stoltenberg, saying: "Any act of escalation by Russia will be of great concern to the United States, and any new aggression will have serious consequences."

Tensions have been rising for weeks, with Russia, Ukraine, and NATO all holding military exercises amid mutual accusations of which side is the aggressor.

In response, President Putin went further than ever in asserting Russia's 'red line' in Ukraine, saying it must respond if NATO deploys advanced missile systems on neighboring soil.

"If some kind of attack system appears on Ukrainian territory, the flight time to Moscow is 7-10 minutes, and five minutes if hypersonic weapons are deployed. Just imagine," said President Putin.

"What should we do in such a scenario? Then we have to make something similar with respect to those who threaten us in that way. And we can do it now," he stressed, referring to Russia's recent testing of hypersonic weapons, which he said can fly at nine times the speed of sound.

The European Union and other Western leaders engaged in a geopolitical tug-of-war with Russia, to gain influence in Ukraine and two other ex-Soviet republics, Moldova and Georgia, through trade arrangements, cooperation, and protection.

NATO foreign ministers kicked off two days of talks in the Latvian capital, Riga, to debate what they say is a growing Russian threat, with Antony Blinken set to brief his 29 alliance colleagues on Washington's intelligence assessment.

Foreign Minister Blinken, speaking at a news conference with his Latvian counterpart, said he would speak more on Wednesday about how to respond to Russia, after holding talks with NATO allies.

"We will consult closely with allies and partners in the days ahead, about whether there are other steps we should take as an alliance to strengthen our defense, strengthen our resilience, strengthen our capacity," said Foreign Minister Blinken.

Meanwhile, Britain and Germany also echoed NATO's warnings.

"We will stand with our fellow democracies against Russia's malign activities," said British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said: "NATO's support for Ukraine is uninterrupted. Russia must pay a high price for any kind of aggression."

Separately, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmygal accused Russia of trying to overthrow the elected government in Kyiv, which the Kremlin denies, after Ukraine's president last week disclosed what he called an attempted coup.

Shmygal, too, said Ukraine would seek more weapons from the United States, precisely the action Putin had warned.

To note, the Kremlin annexed Crimea's Black Sea peninsula from Ukraine in 2014 and later backed rebels battling government forces in the east of the country. The conflict has killed 14,000 people, according to Kyiv, and is still simmering.

In May, Russian troops on the Ukrainian border numbered 100.000, the most since the takeover of Crimea, Western officials said. Ukraine says there are more than 90.000 there now.

Meanwhile, Moscow has rejected Ukraine's assessment that it is preparing for an attack, saying it is not threatening anyone and defending its right to deploy troops on its own territory as it wishes.