The Kremlin said on Sunday that NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte's remarks about preparing for war with Russia were irresponsible and showed that he did not really understand the devastation wrought by World War Two.

Rutte, in a speech in Berlin on Thursday, said that NATO should be "prepared for the scale of war our grandparents or great-grandparents endured" and asserted that "we are Russia's next target."

The Kremlin has repeatedly dismissed claims by NATO and some European leaders that it plans to attack a NATO member as "nonsense" used by European leaders to whip up anti-Russian hysteria.

"This seems like a statement by a representative of a generation that has managed to forget what World War Two was actually like," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told state television reporter Pavel Zarubin.

"They have no understanding, and unfortunately, Mr. Rutte, making such irresponsible statements, simply does not understand what he is talking about."