NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte's remarks on preparing for war with Russia are irresponsible and show that he does not really understand the devastation caused by World War II, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, quoted by "Reuters".
Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022 after eight years of fighting between Moscow-backed separatists and Ukrainian troops in Donbas. The war has sparked the biggest confrontation between Russia and the West since the Cold War.
In a speech in Berlin on Thursday, Rutte said that NATO must be "prepared for the scale of the war that our grandparents and great-grandparents experienced" and stated that "we are Russia's next target".
The Kremlin has repeatedly dismissed claims by NATO and some European leaders that it plans to attack any member state of the Alliance as "nonsense" used by European leaders to incite anti-Russian hysteria.
"This looks like a statement by a representative of a generation that has managed to forget what World War II really was," Peskov pointed out.
"They have no understanding and unfortunately Mr. Rutte, making such irresponsible statements, simply does not understand what he is talking about," he added.
European and Ukrainian leaders claim that if Russia wins in Ukraine, then it will attack NATO. Moscow, on the other hand, believes that NATO's expansion to the east is a threat to Russia. Moscow is adamant that it has no intention of attacking NATO.
President Vladimir Putin said earlier this month that Russia does not want a war with Europe, but that if Europe starts one, then Russia is ready and that such a war would end very quickly.