MOSCOW/WARSAW (Reuters) – Russia said on Thursday that a new US ballistic missile defense base in northern Poland would lead to an increase in the number of nuclear threats, but Warsaw said “threats” from Moscow had intensified the debate over NATO’s defense. .
The air defense base, located in the city of Redzikowo near the Baltic coast, part of the main NATO shield, was opened on November 13.
“This is another provocative step in a series of actions that seriously harm the Americans and their partners in the North Atlantic Alliance in the strategic process,” the spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova said.
“This leads to an impact on the stability of the system, an increase in system risks and, as a result, an increase in the number of nuclear threats.”
Pawel Wronski, a spokesman for Poland’s foreign ministry, said there were no nuclear weapons at the base, it was just for protection.
“This base serves the purpose of defense, not attack,” said Wronski. “Such a threat will serve as an argument for strengthening the air defense of Poland and NATO, and should also be considered by the United States.”
The US base at Redzikowo is part of NATO’s wider shield, called “Aegis Ashore”, which the alliance says can intercept missiles up to medium-range missiles.
“Considering the nature and scale of the threat posed by Western military bases, the missile defense system in Poland has been added to the list of targets for potential destruction, which, if necessary, can be executed by various advanced weapons. ,” Zakharova said.
The NATO missile shield includes sites in Poland, Romania as well as US Navy destroyers at a military base in Spain and an early warning radar in Turkey, according to NATO.
(Reporting by Reuters in Moscow and Barbara Erling in Warsaw; Writing by Guy Faulconbridge Editing by Andrew Osborn and Ros Russell)