In July 2024 NATO announced that the U.S. would, starting in 2026, deploy nuclear capable intermediate range missiles in Germany.
This would recreated the dangerous situation Europe had seen before the INF treaty was put into place. A nuclear war within Europe, without the involvement of the continental U.S., will again become a possibility.
Russia had to finally react to the threat. A few weeks after the NATO announcement Vladimir Putin responded to those plans:
The US administration and the German government made a noteworthy statement concerning their plans to deploy US long-range precision missile systems in Germany in 2026.The missiles could reach ranges of major Russian state and military facilities, administrative and industrial centres, and defence infrastructure. The flight time to targets on our territory of such missiles, which in the future may be equipped with nuclear warheads, would be about ten minutes.
The United States has already conducted exercises to practice deployment of Typhon missile systems from its territory to Denmark and the Philippines. This situation is reminiscent of the events of the Cold War related to the deployment of American medium-range Pershing missiles in Europe.
If the United States implements these plans, we will consider ourselves free from the previously assumed unilateral moratorium on the deployment of medium and shorter-range strike weapons, including increasing the capabilities of the coastal troops of our Navy.
Today, the development of such systems in Russia is nearing completion. We will take mirror measures to deploy them, taking into account the actions of the United States, its satellites in Europe and in other regions of the world.
Yesterday's attack on the Yuzhmash complex in Dnepropetrovsk (video) was the first demonstration of the new Russian capability.
The new missiles, named Oreshnik (hazel), is a RS-26 variant with a shorter range and a payload of six (instead of the previously four) multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles (MIRV). Each reentry vehicle can carry six sub-munitions. The payload can be inert, destroying the target by the shear power of its kinetic energy, high-explosive or nuclear.
The missile uses solid fuel and is road mobile. It can be fired on short notice from camouflaged positions.
Launched from Russia the missile can reach any target in Europe in less than 20 minutes. On reentry into the atmosphere the warheads of the missile reach hypersonic speeds of 3-4 kilometer per second. There is no air defense system in the world that could stop them.
The surprising and successful demonstration of such an enormous capability is a wake-up call for European strategists.
The results are now in. Europe is defenseless against new Russian weapons which can reach every political and industrial center of Europe with devastating power and with just minutes of notice.
While announcing the new capabilities the Russian president also made an offer (video) to limit their deployment:
We are developing intermediate-range and shorter-range missiles in response to US plans to produce and deploy intermediate-range and shorter-range missiles in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region. We believe that the United States made a mistake by unilaterally destroying the INF Treaty in 2019 under a far-fetched pretext. Today, the United States is not only producing such equipment, but, as we can see, it has worked out ways to deploy its advanced missile systems to different regions of the world, including Europe, during training exercises for its troops. Moreover, in the course of these exercises, they are conducting training for using them.As a reminder, Russia has voluntarily and unilaterally committed not to deploy intermediate-range and shorter-range missiles until US weapons of this kind appear in any region of the world.To reiterate, we are conducting combat tests of the Oreshnik missile system in response to NATO’s aggressive actions against Russia. Our decision on further deployment of intermediate-range and shorter-range missiles will depend on the actions of the United States and its satellites.
Should the U.S. and its European lackeys commit further offenses against Russia, more severe Oreshnik 'tests', under field conditions and potentially aiming at targets beyond Ukraine, will be pursued:
We will determine the targets during further tests of our advanced missile systems based on the threats to the security of the Russian Federation. We consider ourselves entitled to use our weapons against military facilities of those countries that allow to use their weapons against our facilities, and in case of an escalation of aggressive actions, we will respond decisively and in mirror-like manner. I recommend that the ruling elites of the countries that are hatching plans to use their military contingents against Russia seriously consider this.
Let's hope they will do so.
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