MOSCOW, December 21. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed Moscow’s great concern over the deployment of the US Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Systems near Russian borders, including their possible location in Ukraine.
"We are highly concerned over the deployment of the US ABM systems near Russian [borders]," the head of state noted at the expanded meeting of the Defense Ministry Board on Tuesday.
According to Putin, "if this infrastructure advances, if the US and NATO missile systems appear in Ukraine, then their flight time to Moscow will be reduced to 7-10 minutes, and speaking about hypersonic weapons - to 5 minutes."
"For us, this is a serious hurdle, a challenge to our security," the Russian leader noted.
"The buildup of US and NATO forces directly at the Russian borders, as well as holding large-scale drills, including unplanned ones, causes serious concern," Putin pointed out.
The head of state recalled the talks between Moscow and Washington on security guarantees, noting that it was US President Joe Biden who put forward an idea to appoint envoys responsible for this dialogue. "So, I offered the US President to launch negotiations on developing specific agreements. As a matter of fact, he [Biden] in the course of the conversation suggested appointing responsible officials in this direction," Putin revealed. "In response to his proposal, we handed over our draft documents, which would prevent NATO from advancing in the eastern direction and deploying offensive strike weapons systems in neighboring countries," the Russian leader said.