FILE PHOTO: Nikolay Patrushev in 2023.
© Pavel Bednyakov / SputnikFILE PHOTO: Nikolay Patrushev in 2023.
The leaders of European NATO members can't accept their declining relevance, Nikolay Patrushev has said

European NATO members are risking nuclear war by escalating military tensions with Russia, according to Nikolay Patrushev, national security adviser to President Vladimir Putin.

Patrushev accused Western powers of "deploying their military machine against Russia and becoming delirious with nuclear apocalypse scenarios." The destabilization is originating from Brussels, Berlin, Paris and London, the senior official told TASS in an interview published on Tuesday.

"For a second consecutive year, NATO is conducting exercises at our borders at a scale unseen in decades," Patrushev said. "They are training for conducting a broad offensive from Vilnius to Odessa, seizing [the Russian exclave] Kaliningrad Region, imposing a naval blockade in the Baltic and the Black Seas, and executing preventive strikes on the staging locations of Russian nuclear deterrence forces."

Patrushev, who formerly served as secretary of Russia's Security Council, described the world as teetering on the brink, facing either a "new bloodbath" reminiscent of World War II or the emergence of "a fair world order where every nation enjoys sovereignty and security." He attributed the actions of Western politicians to their refusal to accept the decline of a system centered around their nations.

The EU intends to borrow hundreds of billions of euros to fund a substantial militarization of its member states, justifying the move with claims of impending Russian aggression within the coming years.

Moscow has denied having any aggressive intentions towards the US-led military bloc, and has accused it of encroaching on Russian borders in violation of promises made to the USSR. Russian officials view the Ukraine conflict as a NATO proxy war aimed at undermining their nation's development.