Putin: Russia may target Ukraine if it joins NATO

MOSCOW (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that Russia could be forced to redirect its missiles towards former Soviet neighbor Ukraine if Kiev joined the NATO military alliance and deployed a U.S. missile defence shield.

When asked about Ukraine's possible entry into NATO, an emotional Putin said NATO membership could mean elements of a U.S. missile shield would be based on Ukrainian soil.

Moscow has consistently opposed U.S. plans to station elements of the shield in Poland and the Czech Republic, saying they disturb the strategic military balance in Europe and are a threat to Russia's national security.

Following talks with Ukrainian president Viktor Yushchenko, Putin said the real aim of the U.S. missile shield was "the neutralization of our nuclear missile potential, which prompts Russia to take retaliatory action".

"I am not only terrified to utter this, it is scary even to think that Russia, in response to a possible deployment of (elements of the planned U.S.) ... missile shield in Ukraine... would have to target its offensive rocket systems at Ukraine," Putin said at a news conference in the Kremlin.

The United States has not asked Ukraine, an ex-Soviet republic of 47 million people seen by Russia as within the sphere of its interests, to play any role in the proposed scheme.

(Reporting by Dmitry Solovyov, writing by Guy Faulconbridge)