The Kremlin says the planned U.S. deployment of long-range missiles in Germany and other actions are “threats to national security.”
Russia has said it will “counter” the expansion of NATO infrastructure in Europe, claiming the military alliance is “constantly and progressively moving towards” its borders as tensions rise over the war in Ukraine. .
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Thursday that Russia took note of decisions made by NATO leaders at this week’s summit in Washington, D.C., to “create separate logistics centers in Black Sea cities” and open “additional facilities in Europe”.
“This is a very serious threat to our country’s national security. All of this will require us to take considered, coordinated and effective responses to deter NATO, to counter NATO,” he said.
His remarks came a day after the United States and Germany announced at the summit that the United States would begin “episodic deployments” of long-range missiles — including SM-6 surface-to-air missiles, Tomahawk cruise missiles and hypersonic weapons — in Germany. . 2026.
Additionally, NATO said that same day that a new U.S. air defense base in northern Poland, designed to detect and intercept ballistic missile attacks as part of a broader NATO anti-missile shield, was ready for the mission.
NATO “once again very clearly confirmed its essence. It is an alliance created in an era of confrontation with the aim of maintaining confrontation,” Peskov said.
Last month, President Vladimir Putin said Russia should resume production of intermediate and shorter-range nuclear-capable missiles and then consider where to deploy them after the U.S. brought similar missiles to Europe and Asia.
He had previously spoken of agreeing not to deploy such missiles in the Russian Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad, but said the US had resumed production, brought them to Denmark for exercises and also brought them to the Philippines.
Land-based missiles with a range exceeding 500 km (310 miles) were banned by the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty signed by the then-Soviet Union and the US in 1987, but the latter withdrew from the treaty in 2019, claiming Russia was violating the terms.
Speaking on the sidelines of the NATO summit, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday that any possibility of a direct confrontation between Russia and NATO was “worrying” and that any steps in that direction should be “consciously avoided”. .
Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Thursday that its troops had “liberated” the village of Voskhod, about 30 kilometers (20 miles) northwest of the city of Donetsk, capital of the eastern Donetsk region that Moscow claims it annexed. .
Ukraine, eager to receive more weapons supplies to help its unarmed and undermanned troops resist Russian pressure, says the fiercest fighting across the front line is taking place in the region.
This story originally appeared on Aljazeera.com read the full story
