NEW DELHI: The Ukraine conflict showed threatening signs of a dangerous escalation with Russia announcing on Wednesday that it has begun exercising its nuclear assets in the Ivanovo region northeast of Moscow. On Wednesday, the Russian defence ministry said in a statement: “In the Ivanovo region, autonomous launchers of the ‘Yars’ mobile ground-based missile system of the Teikovsky formation of the Strategic Missile Forces perform intensive manoeuvring actions on combat patrol routes as part of the exercises.”
“Strategic rocket men are working on the issues of bringing missile systems to field positions, making marches up to 100 km long, dispersing units with a change in field positions, their engineering equipment, organizing camouflage and combat security,” the statement said adding that about 1,000 military personnel were involved in the exercise with more than 100 pieces of equipment involved.
Russia’s Strategic Missile Forces - the main component of its nuclear forces - are intended for nuclear deterrence of possible aggression, the statement said. Equipped with multiple warheads with manoeuvring individual guidance units, the ‘Yars’ nuclear-tipped Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) is capable of hitting targets at a distance of up to 11,000 km.
For perspective, the distance from Moscow to New York on the US' east coast is about 7,500 km while to California on the west coast is about 9,500 km. The latest development comes amid a war of words between Russia and the US over the supply of heavy artillery by the US to Ukraine. The Joe Biden administration has decided to supply Kyiv with its High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS), a more mobile and high-tech variant of the Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) that will considerably extend Ukraine’s reach by staging pin-pointed attacks against Russia’s firing positions.
At the same time, the US has said higher range systems would not be handed out given the “risk of escalation” with Russia. The HIMARS US is expected to supply Ukraine is to be of a variant with a reduced range and is most likely to be the M142, which is a high tech, lighter and more mobile wheel-mounted version. HIMARS can hit targets up to 80 km which means they can be used against Russian targets including batteries, ammo dumps and fuel depots inside Russia if positioned near the borders of the two warring nations.
Russia responded vehemently to the development with Sergei Ryabkov, the deputy foreign minister, stating: “Attempts to present the decision as containing an element of ‘self-restraint’ are useless… The fact that the United States, at the head of a group of states, is engaged in a purposeful pumping of weapons into the Kyiv regime is an obvious thing.”
On Wednesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters: “We believe that the United States is adding fuel to the fire deliberately and on purpose… Such ‘supplies’ do not encourage Kyiv to resume peace talks,” adding the US wanted to “fight Russia to the last Ukrainian”.
Responding to Ukrainian President Zelenskyy’s statement on Tuesday that Kiev will not use the US weapons to attack Russian territory, Peskov said: “In order to trust, there must be previous experience when such promises were fulfilled. Unfortunately, such experience is completely nonexistent.” The US and its allies have sent billions of dollars worth of weapons to Ukraine ever since Russia initiated military action on the dawn of February 24, 2022.
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