Putin Closes Off Northern Sea Route

Russia Orders Two Strategic (Nuclear) Missile Complexes to "Combat Duty"; Closes Northern Sea Route in Arctic Over NATO Activities

H Turner

Two missile regiments armed with Yars intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) with Multiple Independent Re-Entry Vehicle (MiRV) nuclear warheads, will assume combat duty in the Russian Strategic Missile Force by the end of this year, Strategic Missile Force Commander Colonel-General Sergey Karakayev confirmed on Friday.

Russia also declared today they are closing the Northern Sea Route, saying NATO's "creeping" intervention in Ukraine has begun and we will not stand idly by.

With regard to the new nuclear missiles, Russia said "We are ending the year 2021 with the effort of placing another missile regiment of the Kozelsk missile formation armed with silo-based Yars missiles and a regiment of the Barnaul missile unit with mobile Yars missile systems on combat alert," the commander confirmed to the Defense Ministry’s Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper.

The RS-24 Yars is a Russian strategic missile system comprising a mobile or silo-based solid-propellant intercontinental ballistic missile with MIRVed (multiple independently targetable vehicle) warheads. The Yars is a modification of the Topol-M missile system. Russia started deploying Yars ICBM systems from 2009 when the Yars launcher was accepted for experimental combat duty in the Strategic Missile Force.

The Kremlin said Friday that NATO's "creeping" intervention in Ukraine has begun and we will not stand idly by.  

In addition to closing the northern sea route, Russia is already taking very dangerous steps that signal an actual exchange of nuclear weapons is possible.  The steps they have just taken include . . .

Russia will now close The Northern Sea Route in the Arctic with an “electronic-dome.”

New battalions are now being deployed to the Arctic Circle . . . along with radio engineering regiments.

Russia says the reason is “Increased activity and interest by NATO, U.S. aviation & ships.”

Here is an image of one of the new Russia electronic "dome" sites, put up and into service in the Arctic within 36 hours:

By closing the northern sea route, Russia has just shut the civilian transportation door on Europe trying to ship or receive shipments from the US West Coast, or from eastern Asia.  It will have a sudden and dramatic economic effect on Europe and, to a lesser extent, the USA.

Vessels already transiting the northern sea route will be permitted to complete their present journey, but other vessels will not be permitted to commence a journey.

U.S officials have repeatedly stated that the North Sea Route should be a "transport artery free for international use and not owned by Russia", but Russia considers it "historically Russian."

The electronic site shown in the image above is more than troubling.  While the highest tower clearly shows radar to keep the Arctic under surveillance for ships trying to travel the northern sea route without permission, it is the other towers and structures that make a dramatic difference.

Those other towers have a very specific purpose: To JAM U.S. over-the-horizon radar.   

If and/or when those additional towers go active, it could serve to literally "blind" U.S. over-the-horizon radar sites or severely curtail the distance at which those sites could pick-up incoming ICBM's.  That would lessen the amount of time the US has to prepare a counter-attack, or make a counter-attack impossible.

Those radar sites are literally what a country would need if it intended a nuclear first strike upon the continental United States.

So the situation with Ukraine has now blossomed into a global trade problem with blockage of the northern sea route, and also mutated into Russian military radar jamming being set up in the Arctic to blind US over-the-horizon radar.

These are not steps that countries take when peace is on the horizon.

 

For what it's worth, this afternoon I received confirmation that US missile submarines have arrived at the Arctic Circle and have begun missile drills.

Russia faces an existential threat: If Ukraine becomes a NATO member, and NATO is allowed to put US missiles inside Ukraine, then those missiles would only afford Russia 5 minutes warning before Moscow got hit, and maybe 7-8 minutes warning before Russia's strategic missiles got hit.

Russia simply cannot back down on this matter because backing down would mean Russia would be vulnerable to a nuclear first strike, and thus be unable to respond or defend itself.

The stakes are just too high.  

Yet the US and NATO are unrelenting in their intent to bring Ukraine into NATO, and place US missiles in Ukraine.

Putin starts countdown to war as major naval strait blocked off

LUKE HAWKER

THE WORLD is watching on with bated breath as Vladimir Putin appears to have started the countdown to war.

The Kerch Strait, a major shipping channel near the Crimean peninsula, has reportedly been blocked off to all civilian vessels. It comes after the Russian navy reported seeing a Ukrainian ship in the vicinity and confirmed it is monitoring the movements.Russian intelligence service (FSB) claimed the Ukrainian Navy command ship, Donbas, did not respond to a request to change its course.

The rest of the world continues to monitor the situation as Russia and Ukraine teeter on the brink of war, hoping an altercation in the Black Sea or nearby Sea of Azov does not materialise.

If it does, it could be the moment that lights the touchpaper and paves the way to a conflict not seen in the region since Russia annexed Crimea in 2014.

A maritime source told Russian news agency TASS that "not a single ship" is currently in the channel.

According to the portal Marinetraffic, dozens of ships have accumulated at the entrances to the strait from the Black and Azov Seas.

The Russian FSB later said the Ukrainian military vessel is no longer approaching Kerch Strait, but not fully complying with orders to change direction.

Ukrainian Joint Forces said command ship Donbas did not enter "sensitive zones" around Kerch Strait.

The Ukrainian defence minister added it was a search-and-rescue ship with no weapons on board.

It is understood the Ukrainian vessel left a port in the city of Mariupol on Wednesday morning and then sailed towards the Kerch Strait.

Coastguards from both sides then reportedly clashed at around 1pm local time over whether the vessel needed an application to sail in those waters.

An FSB notice said: "At present, the Donbass is located at a distance of 18 nautical miles to the Kerch Strait, it does not comply with the requirement to change the course.

"These actions pose a threat to the safety of navigation."

The incident resembles a flashpoint in November 2018, which saw three Ukrainian Navy vessels being captured by the FSB Coast Guard.

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