The U.S. stationing of longer-range missiles in Germany as of 2026 would lead to a serious escalation of tensions across Europe, because Russia will certainly not sit back and watch as its national security is threatened. The Russian Foreign Ministry suggested earlier this week that Moscow could roll out its own nuclear-capable systems in response, Izvestia writes, according to the July 19 press review on TASS.
Dmitry Kornev, editor of the MilitaryRussia website told Izvestia, that particularly the Tomahawk cruise missiles with a range of up to 1,800 km pose a threat to Moscow since the distance from Berlin is about 1,500 km. Besides, all systems planned to be deployed in Germany will be mobile and it will be possible to move them to any other NATO country, including Finland and the Baltic nations.
“We have the means to counter such missiles. Of course, no one is guaranteeing that every missile will be downed but we have weapons capable of hitting the deployment sites of launchers,” military analyst Colonel Viktor Litovkin (ret.) told Izvestia. He stressed, however, that Russia would not strike first because “this is not our goal.”
Kornev said further, “A new ballistic missile with a range of up to and over 1,000 km is highly likely to be created on the basis of engineering and operational practices of the Iskander-M missile system.”
