RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE
Putin makes missile announcement
The Russian defense industry is ready to start producing intermediate and shorter-range missiles that had been banned under a now-defunct treaty with the US, President Vladimir Putin announced on Thursday.
The Cold War-era Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) had prohibited these systems, but the US withdrew from it in 2019. Moscow chose to maintain the ban so long as Washington abided by it as well.
“As I’ve said, in connection with the US withdrawal from this treaty and the announcement that they are starting production, we also consider ourselves entitled to start research, development, and in the future, production,” Putin said on Thursday at a press conference following the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Astana, Kazakhstan.
“We are conducting this R&D, and we are ready to start production. We have already, in principle, given the relevant instructions to our industry,” he added.
Putin mentioned during a meeting of the National Security Council in Moscow last week the possibility that Russia might resume production of previously banned missile systems, citing the “hostile actions” of the US.
“We now know that the US is not only producing these missile systems, but has also brought them to Europe, Denmark, to use in exercises. Not long ago, it was reported that they were in the Philippines,” Putin explained at the time.
Washington’s moves left Moscow with no choice but to revive its intermediate-range and short-range programs, he said, adding that they would be deployed “based on the actual situation, if necessary.”
The 1987 INF treaty had banned both the US and Soviet Union from producing and fielding ground-based ballistic and cruise missiles – as well as their respective launchers – with ranges of 500 to 5,500 km (310 to 3,420 miles). The treaty did not affect air- or sea-based systems with the same range. This helped lower the tensions over the deployment of nuclear weapons in Europe.
Russia as the successor to the USSR continued to adhere to the treaty, while raising concerns that US installations in Eastern Europe – ostensibly designed as missile defenses – violated the treaty because their launchers were capable of deploying ground-attack munitions as well. In 2019, Washington pulled out of the treaty, accusing Moscow of having violated it without offering evidence to back up that claim.
WESTERN PERSPECTIVE
Russian attacks kill two, wound 26 in Ukraine
Russian strikes killed two people and wounded 26 on Thursday in Ukrainian regions stretching from the south to the east and northeast, local authorities said.
A missile strike in southern Odesa region killed a woman, injured seven people and damaged port infrastructure, regional governor Oleh Kiper said on Telegram.
In northeastern Kharkiv region, a second woman was killed and a man wounded in a strike by a Russian guided bomb on the village of Ruska Lozova, according to regional governor Oleh Syniehubov.
Nine others, including four children, were wounded in a drone attack and shelling in the town of Novohrodivka, in the frontline Donetsk region, governor Vadym Filashkin said.
Dnipropetrovsk regional governor Serhiy Lysak reported seven wounded in the southern town of Nikopol. He had said earlier that Russian forces had attacked areas near Nikopol with drones and artillery on Wednesday evening and Thursday morning.
Lysak later reported that a woman died of injuries sustained on Wednesday in the region's main city, Dnipro. Seven people died in that attack.
Two civilians in the southern city of Kherson were wounded in a drone strike, the local administration said.
All the affected regions have been subjected to repeated attacks since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Russia denies targeting civilians or civilian infrastructure, but thousands of people have been killed and wounded.
RT/Reuters