Sergei Chemezov, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, said that the United States and its Western allies risk provoking a global war if Washington continues to "provoke" the conflict in Ukraine and allows Kiev to attack Russian territory.
His comments to Britain's Reuters agency provide a rare insight into the mindset of Putin's inner circle following Ukraine's surprise attack on Russia's Kursk region, to which the Russian president has promised a fierce response.
Chemezov, CEO of the Rostek Corporation, which largely supplies the Russian military, said that Russia is confident and has enough weapons more than two years since the war in Ukraine began. He repeated the Kremlin's position that the conflict is a conflict between the West and Russia.
"In a situation where the West, led by the USA, provokes a war, we must be ready," stated Chemezov in a written response to a request for an interview. "The third year of the special operation is underway, Russia is confident." He said no one would give a time frame for an eventual end to the war, and accused the US of provoking the conflict by supplying Kiev with weapons and allowing attacks deep into Russian territory.
"The longer it lasts, the greater the risk that the world will be drawn into a global conflict. It seems strange, but Western countries don't seem to understand how dangerous it is for them."
The comments by Chemezov, a former KGB general who served with Putin in East Germany before the collapse of the Soviet Union, were sent to Reuters after Ukrainian forces attacked Kursk.
Putin said in June that he might deploy conventional missiles capable of hitting the United States and its allies if they allow Ukraine to strike deep into Russian territory with long-range Western missiles.
Moscow claims that the West is involved in the planning of the Ukrainian attack on the Kursk region. Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) said it had evidence that the raid was planned with the participation of US, British and Polish intelligence services.
Western powers, who want to avoid a direct conflict with Russia, reject these allegations.
Although Western allies have barred Ukraine from launching attacks with Western weapons deep inside Russia, they have allowed Kiev to use them to attack border areas since Russia launched a new offensive in the Kharkiv region this spring.
Chemezov, 71, who is under US and European Union sanctions after Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, said it is a "myth" that sanctions and increased defense spending have left shelves empty in Russian stores.
"Go to any Russian hypermarket and see for yourself, everything is fine with 'butter'," he said. "Russia has enough 'cannon fodder'. We have increased the production of weapons many times over."
The sanctions have destroyed supply chains, forcing Rostek to push back deadlines for the Yakovljev MC-21 aircraft and to replace about 40 imported components in the Superjet-100, but none of that is fatal for Russia or Rostek, he added.
The number of employees at Rostek will increase by tens of thousands this year, he said, describing the withdrawal of Western companies such as Boeing and Airbus from the Russian market as an "opportunity" for Rostek, for which he was "thankful".
"We went through the main stress. We managed to take advantage of the situation and draw the necessary conclusions. One of them is: there is no longer joint business based on trust with Western countries," Chemezov said.
Russia is the world's third largest arms exporter, after the US and France, although its share of the global market has declined due to the war in Ukraine, according to data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
Chemezov said that defense companies will continue to make a significant contribution to the Russian economy even after the conflict in Ukraine. Arms exports have declined, but there are signs of significant pent-up demand from abroad, partly due to the fact that Russian weapons have been proven on the battlefield in Ukraine.
"Our partners are sympathetic and ready to wait," said Chemezov. "There's already a long waiting list."
Kiev claims that it is advancing in Kursk, and Moscow claims that Ukrainian troops have been stopped
Ukraine said yesterday that it is destroying Russian floating bridges using US weapons in an attack on the Kursk region, while Moscow claims that its forces have halted Kiev's advance in the area and made progress in eastern Ukraine.
Kiev has reported a string of battlefield successes since it unexpectedly crossed into Russia's Kursk region on Aug. 6, but Moscow has made gradual advances in eastern Ukraine, putting pressure on soldiers exhausted by two years of war, Reuters reported.
Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that Kiev's advance in Kursk has brought greater territorial gains than Moscow has achieved in Ukraine this year.
On the other hand, Russian Major-General Apti Alaudinov, commander of the Chechen special forces "Ahmat" and deputy head of the military-political department of the Ministry of Defense, said that Ukrainian forces were stopped in the Kursk region. "We stopped them and started to push them back," Alaudinov said. He added that Ukrainian forces were regrouping and could soon launch a new attack, but did not give further details.
Russia has repeatedly claimed that the Ukrainian offensive has been halted, while Ukraine reports progress and claims to have captured 92 settlements on an area of over 1.250 square kilometers.
The incursion provided a much-needed morale boost for the Ukrainian military, which has not made significant gains on its territory since late 2022.
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