A Western war against Russia would be on a completely different level to the conflict in Ukraine, Vladimir Putin has warned, calling reports that the US government is preparing for a war against Russia “nonsense”.

A bipartisan panel appointed by the US Congress said on Thursday that Washington should prepare for possible simultaneous wars with Moscow and Beijing by expanding its conventional forces, strengthening alliances and boosting its nuclear weapons modernization programme.

Putin, who is due to visit China this week, said the United States had stoked tensions with Beijing by creating the “AUKUS” security alliance of the US, Australia and Britain, and that Russia and China were not building a military alliance .

“I don’t think these are sane thoughts in the minds of sane people, because to say that the United States is preparing for war with Russia, then we are all preparing for war because we follow the ancient principle: if you want peace, prepare for war,” he said Putin in a statement posted on Telegram.

“But we want peace,” Putin said. “Besides, fighting both Russia and China is nonsense – I don’t think it’s serious. I think they just scare each other.”