MOSCOW, December 19. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin is not worried about the potential deployment of the US-made THAAD missile defense system to Ukraine.

"If the Americans decide to supply it, let them do this. Let them deploy this THAAD. <…> Let them do this and we will ask our men in Ukraine to tell us which advanced solutions are employed there," he said at his combined annual press conference and question-and-answer session.

According to Putin, there are a lot of "our men" in Ukraine who want to liberate their country from neo-Nazism and Russia is maintaining ties with them.

He also noted that THAAD systems are compatible with Russia’s S-400 missile systems. "Whereas the Patriot [air defense system] can be compared with Russia’s S-300, the THAAD system is on a par with the S-400, a kind of poor man’s S-400," he said.

The president also recalled that Moscow had once asked Washington not to deploy its missile defense systems to spare Russia from developing counter instruments, but this did not happen. "We have done a lot to develop a penetrative missile system," Putin said. "And from the perspective of American taxpayers, this whole story is a costly endeavor that doesn’t contribute much to ensuring the security of their country."