The newspaper cited Patrushev as saying: "In fact, NATO countries are a party to the conflict. They made Ukraine one big military camp. They send weapons and ammunition to the Ukrainian troops, provide them with intelligence".

Patrushev, a former chief of the FSB internal security service, is widely seen as one of the most hawkish members of Russian President Vladimir Putin's inner circle.

Patrushev has also warned that Moscow has the weapons to destroy any enemy, including the United States, if its own existence was threatened, accusing Washington of underestimating Moscow's nuclear might.

The comments from Patrushev are the latest from a senior Russian official to raise the specter of a nuclear showdown between the world's two largest nuclear powers, something Moscow says it wants to avoid.

"American politicians trapped by their own propaganda remain confident that, in the event of a direct conflict with Russia, the United States is capable of launching a preventive missile strike, after which Russia will no longer be able to respond. This is short-sighted stupidity, and very dangerous," Patrushev told the state Rossiiskaya Gazeta newspaper on Monday.

"Russia is patient and does not intimidate anyone with its military advantage. But it has modern unique weapons capable of destroying any adversary, including the United States, in the event of a threat to its existence", he said.

Russia has said one of the reasons why it sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in February last year in what it calls its "special military operation" was to counter a perceived security threat stemming from Kyiv's rapprochement with the United States-led NATO defense alliance.

Since then, Moscow has accused the West, without presenting public evidence, of making nuclear threats against it, and has spoken of its readiness to use nuclear weapons in extreme circumstances if the very existence of the Russian state is imperiled.

On Saturday, Putin announced that Russia would station tactical nuclear missiles in its close ally Belarus, which borders both Ukraine and Russia, sending a warning to NATO over its military support for Kyiv and escalating a standoff with the West.

Ukraine’s response

Meanwhile, Ukraine's ground forces commander said on Monday Kyiv was planning its next move after Moscow shifted the focus of its offensive from a flagging assault on the eastern city of Bakhmut to another town further south, described as postapocalyptic.

The Ukrainian military aims to wear down Russian forces as much as possible before launching a counteroffensive in the coming weeks or months -- seeking to end the all-out invasion launched by Russian President Vladimir Putin 13 months ago.

Ukrainian ground forces commander Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi, who said last week that the counterattack could come "very soon", visited front-line troops in the east on Monday and said his forces were still repelling Russian attacks on Bakhmut.

Defending the small city in the industrialized Donbas region that Russia has tried to seize for months was a "military necessity", he said, praising Ukrainian resilience in "extremely difficult conditions".

"We are calculating all possible options for the development of events, and will react adequately to the current situation".

Commander-in-Chief General Valery Zaluzhniy said on Saturday the situation was being "stabilized" around Bakhmut, where Russian forces say they are fighting street by street.

Last week, the Ukrainian military warned that Avdiivka, a smaller town 90 kilometers further south, could become a "second Bakhmut" as Russia turns its attention there. Both towns have been reduced to rubble in fighting that both sides have called a "meat grinder".

"I am sad to say this, but Avdiivka is becoming more and more like a place from postapocalyptic movies," said Vitaliy Barabash, head of the city's military administration. Only around 2,000 of a prewar population of 30,000 remain and he urged them to leave.

A Ukrainian military video showed smoke billowing from ruined apartment blocks and dead soldiers on open ground and in trenches in Bakhmut.

Two people were killed and 29 wounded on Monday after Russian forces fired two S-300 missiles at the eastern city of Sloviansk northwest of Bakhmut, according to regional Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko. President Volodymyr Zelensky posted a video of smoldering debris and vowed that "Ukraine will not forgive" such attacks. Moscow denies targeting civilians.

Inside Russia, the defense ministry said it had downed a Ukrainian drone on Sunday, adding three people were injured and apartment blocks were damaged in the attack south of Moscow.

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