Russia has warned that Europe’s capital cities ‘are the potential victims’ if the US deploys long-range missiles on the continent, after the US and Germany announced at the NATO summit that they will begin distributing projectiles by 2026.
In a video published by a Russian state television reporter on Saturday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Russia has the means to deter US deployments of long-range missiles in Europe.Â
Asked by reporter Pavel Zarubin about the possibility of the United States deploying hypersonic missiles to Europe, Peskov said: ‘We have enough potential to deter these missiles. But the capitals of these (European) states are potential victims.’
This comes after Russia on Thursday said that it would act to counter the planned US deployment of long-range missiles in Germany, as it regarded the NATO military alliance’s actions as a serious threat to Russia’s national security.Â
At a briefing with Russian news agencies about the outcome of the NATO summit which took place in Washington on Wednesday, Peskov said: ‘The North Atlantic alliance has once again very clearly confirmed its essence. It is an alliance created in an era of confrontation with the aim of maintaining confrontation.
‘Tensions on the European continent are escalating’ as a result, he added, saying the Kremlin was watching as NATO’s military infrastructure crept closer.
The US and Germany had announced at the NATO summit that they would begin deploying long-range fire capabilities in Germany in 2026 to show their commitment to European defence as Russia continues to wage its war against Ukraine.
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They said the ‘episodic deployments’ were in preparation for longer-term stationing that would include SM-6, Tomahawk cruise missiles and hypersonic weapons with a longer range than current capabilities in Europe.
NATO also said on Wednesday that a new US air defence base in Poland, designed to detect and intercept missile attacks was mission-ready.Â
Moscow also issued a warning to new Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer earlier this week as Peskov said there would be a response if the UK allowed Ukraine to strike Russiawith British weapons.
The comments came after Sir Keir told reporters yesterday en route to Washington for NATO’s 75th-anniversary summit that decisions on the use of UK-supplied long-range Storm Shadow missiles were for the Ukrainian armed forces to make.
Storm Shadow missiles, accurate to beyond 150 miles, have already been used by Ukraine to hit targets in Russian-occupied territory to great effect.