Kremlin criticizes plans for US weapons in Germany

Russia has criticized the planned stationing of long-range US weapons in Germany as a return to the Cold War.

"We are well on the way to a Cold War. This has all happened before," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian state television on Thursday.

Peskov accused Germany, the United States, France and the United Kingdom of being directly involved in the conflict over Ukraine. "And all the features of the Cold War are returning - with confrontation, with direct conflict between opponents," he said.

"All this is being done with the aim of undermining our country. Everything is being done to guarantee our strategic defeat on the battlefield," emphasized Peskov.

Russia must take all of this into account, he said. "This is no reason for pessimism. On the contrary: This is a reason to pull ourselves together and use all the rich potential we have to fulfil all the goals we have set ourselves in the course of the special military operation."

Moscow uses the term "special military operation" to refer to its war against Ukraine. Preventing Kiev's membership of NATO was one of Russia's reasons for launching the invasion.

On the sidelines of the NATO summit, the White House and the German government announced that, for the first time since the Cold War, US weapons systems are to be stationed in Germany in 2026 that will reach as far as Russia.