Russia has clearly criticized the decision to station long-range US weapons on German territory. Defense Minister Pistorius disagrees, saying the Kremlin has had these weapons for a long time.
Russia has criticized the planned stationing of long-range US weapons in Germany as a return to the Cold War. “We are well on our way to a Cold War. All of this has happened before,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian state television.
Peskov accused Germany, the US, France and Great Britain of being directly involved in the conflict over Ukraine. “And all the features of the Cold War are returning – with confrontation, with direct confrontation between opponents,” he said. “All this is being done with the aim of undermining our country. All this is being done to guarantee our strategic defeat on the battlefield,” Peskov stressed.
Long-range missiles reach Russia
Russia must take all of this into account. “This is no reason for pessimism. On the contrary: This is a reason to pull ourselves together and use all of the rich potential we have to achieve all of the goals we have set ourselves in the course of the special military operation.” This refers to the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, with which Moscow wants to prevent Kiev from joining NATO, among other things.
Defense Minister Boris Pistorius sees the agreed stationing of long-range US weapons in Germany as an effective contribution to deterring Russian aggression. In interviews with ZDF and ARD on Thursday at the NATO summit in Washington, the SPD politician made it clear that the plan was not an escalation.
“We have a new threat situation. Vladimir Putin has shown what he is willing and able to do,” Pistorius told ZDF’s “heute journal”. “As we do not have a sufficient number of systems in this area, the Americans are temporarily stationing these systems until we have developed our own systems with our European partners.”
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It is about using conventional deterrence to ensure that a conflict never occurs. “And that a nuclear conflict certainly does not arise. But that requires our own strength,” he said.
Pistorius: “No new arms race”
The minister told ARD’s “Tagesthemen” that there could be no talk of a new arms race. “Russia has been stationing these weapons systems for some time now, among other places – as we suspect – in Kaliningrad, which means within absolute range of Germany and other European nations,” said Pistorius. “We don’t want an escalation.”
The signal must be sent: “We are capable of defending ourselves and we are willing to defend ourselves, because we are under threat and I take every concern in the country seriously.” He would not speak of a majority of the population when it comes to the critical voices.
On the sidelines of the NATO summit, the White House and the German government announced that, for the first time since the Cold War, US weapons systems that reach as far as Russia will be stationed in Germany again from 2026. From 2026, Tomahawk cruise missiles with a range of well over 2,000 kilometers, SM-6 anti-aircraft missiles and new supersonic weapons will provide better protection for NATO allies in Europe.
In response to the statement at the NATO summit in Washington that Ukraine’s path to joining the military alliance was irreversible, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said that Ukraine and NATO would then have to disappear. Medvedev has been trying for years to create a profile for himself as deputy head of the Russian National Security Council with particularly provocative statements.
Source: Stern
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