MOSCOW 

Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu on Wednesday said US accusations that Russia plans to deploy nuclear weapons in outer space may be an invitation to resume talks on strategic stability.

Speaking in an interview with the Russian state news agency TASS, Shoygu stressed that Moscow has no such projects, and the US is well aware of it.

"I don't understand why they scare senators and congressmen with things that don't exist when there are real things to be afraid of and to pay attention to," he noted.

He suggested that such accusations may be "an invitation to resume negotiations on strategic stability."

"The reason they made a fuss, in our opinion, has two dimensions. The first is to scare senators and congressmen in order to promote and push through the allocation of those funds that will allegedly be directed not just for Ukraine. ... The second is a situation in which, in our opinion, they would like to resume or encourage us, perhaps so clumsily, to a dialogue on strategic stability," he said.

Last week, US officials accused Russia of plans to deploy new anti-satellite weapons armed with a nuclear warhead in space.

White House spokesman John Kirby said the US administration views the development with grave concern, emphasizing that President Joe Biden ordered "direct diplomatic engagement with Russia" to clarify things.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Russia's position "is clear and transparent," and that Moscow has always been against the deployment of nuclear weapons in space.

Ukraine's counteroffensive

Asked about Ukraine's 2023 counteroffensive, Shoygu said the Russian intelligence acquired data about it early last year, when Kyiv accumulated a serious force of more than 160,000 troops, 800 tanks, 2,500 units of other military equipment, and 150 aircraft.

As the exact place of the planned counteroffensive was not clear, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered to build defense fortifications along the entire line of contact, he noted.

According to the minister, the counteroffensive operation was worked out "outside Ukraine," and its results demonstrated that the Western military methods are overpraised.

"Neither you nor I can name a single place where they (Western military) would have conducted at least one more or less (successful) operation, be it Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria," he stressed.

Shoygu said Ukrainian troops failed to approach even the first line of Russia's defense but this does not mean that the counteroffensive was repelled "with some kind of ease" as "it was a big, hard, combat job."

Battle for Avdiivka

Preparations for the battle for the city of Avdiivka began last autumn, and the Russian military was preparing for a fierce confrontation because Kyiv had been fortifying the settlement for nine years, Shoygu said.

"The operation to liberate Avdiivka will be included in education programs. The General Staff did everything to ensure that it took place with minimal losses and maximum efficiency," he noted.

According to Shoygu, taking control of the Krynky village in the Kherson region by the Russian forces marked "the end of Ukraine's counteroffensive."

The minister said the Russian defense industry has been picking up pace, and some enterprises, "starting from scratch," produce as much ammunition as all NATO countries produce in a month.

Last year, the Defense Ministry signed a contract with 540,000 people with the goal of building a reserve army, and today, this is a trained, professional military force, he stressed.

"The Russian army has changed significantly since the beginning of the special military operation, it is a different army now," Shoygu added.