KHIMKI /Moscow Region/, March 5. /TASS/. Moscow made a decision to put its strategic deterrence forces on special alert immediately after a statement by UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss on a possible conflict between Russia and NATO, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday.
Western partners do have an understanding about what the West’s actions against Russia "may be fraught with and what this may entail for all, despite their reckless statements," the Russian leader pointed out. "Like it was done by the UK foreign secretary who blurted that NATO may be involved in the conflict," the head of state went on to say.
"We had to immediately make a decision on putting our forces on special alert," Putin said.
This decision was followed by the West’s reaction, the Russian leader said.
"They said they did not mean anything of this kind but no one restrained the foreign secretary and no one disavowed these statements. No one said anything. And what must we think about that? What must we think on this score? Of course, we perceived this as a signal and reacted correspondingly," Putin explained.
President Putin said at a meeting with Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov in the Kremlin on February 27 that "top officials of leading NATO countries also allow themselves to make aggressive pronouncements towards our country" and thus ordered to put the Russian Army’s deterrence forces on special alert.
The Kremlin meeting took place amid Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine. Moscow commenced the operation in response to a request from the heads of the Donbass republics for assistance.