German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said yesterday that German authorities have not yet decided where to station the long range U.S. missiles that will be deployed to the country in 2026. “The U.S. is currently making preparations for the deployment of these weapons to Germany. However, I would like to make it clear: these are conventional weapons,” Pistorius said in an interview with Luxembourg’s Tageblatt newspaper, reported TASS. He added that the German leadership “will make everything possible to prevent an escalation of tensions.” In his view, if “it becomes clear to everyone” that Germany and NATO are capable of defending themselves, it will reduce the likelihood of an attack on them.
In fact, if Germany and the U.S. go ahead with this deployment, the missiles themselves will become targets for Russian missiles, perhaps even nuclear armed. “I don’t rule anything out,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told reporters in Moscow yesterday, when asked if Russia could deploy nuclear missiles in response to the U.S. missile deployment in Germany. “If officials from the German Federal government believe it reasonable to carry out inflammatory activities, citing what we have in the region [Russia’s westernmost Kaliningrad region], then we will respond with retaliatory measures we deem appropriate.”
