Russia's confrontation with hostile states to last 'a long time': Kremlin

The Kremlin says the "hybrid war" being waged against Russia by hostile Western states would last "a long time".

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov made the prediction during a press briefing on Wednesday when asked how long the "special military operation" in Ukraine would last.

"If you are referring to a war in a broader context, a confrontation with hostile states, a hybrid war against our country, then it is going to last for a long time," Peskov said. "And here we need to be resolute and self-confident and to consolidate around the president."

Separately, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Wednesday Moscow had suspended sharing information about its nuclear forces with the United States, including notices about missile tests. 

The senior diplomat said Russia will no longer inform the US about its missile tests. He said Moscow halted all information exchanges with Washington after previously suspending its participation in the last remaining nuclear arms pact with the US.

Such notices have been an essential element of strategic stability for decades, allowing Russia and the United States to correctly interpret each other's moves.

Last month, President Vladimir Putin suspended the New START treaty, charging that Russia can’t accept US inspections of its nuclear sites under the agreement at a time when Washington and its NATO allies have openly declared unconditional support of Ukraine against Russia’s defeat in Ukraine as their goal.

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The warnings appear to mark yet another attempt by Moscow to discourage the West from ramping up its support for Ukraine.

The Russian military has deployed mobile launchers in Siberia in a show of the country’s massive nuclear capability. Putin has also announced the deployment of tactical nuclear weapons to Moscow's ally Belarus.

In a statement on Monday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said amid the hybrid war unleashed by the West, and the declared intention of NATO to inflict a "strategic defeat" on Russia, it is natural for Moscow to take military-technical countermeasures. Zakharova said Russia has “reserved and still reserves the right to take the necessary additional steps to ensure the security of Russia and its allies.”

She expressed concern over recent calls to expand the geography of the storage of US nuclear weapons in Europe.

She said Russia has been exercising maximum restraint over the past years as its calls for the withdrawal of all US nuclear weapons have either been ignored or openly rejected.

Russia launched its military operation in Ukraine last February. At the time, President Putin said one of the goals of the war was to “de-Nazify” Ukraine.

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