Reports that Ukraine has attacked Russia’s early ballistic missile warning stations are unnerving the country’s American backers, according to the Washington Post on Wednesday.
Last week, Ukrainian sources claimed that two operations had been carried out against Russian long-range facilities designed to detect intercontinental ballistic missile launches. The Russian Defense Ministry did not comment on the claim. Footage shared online suggests that at least one of the attacks caused damage.
In a statement on Saturday, Senator Dmitry Rogozin, who previously headed up the Russian space agency Roscosmos, said Moscow should hold the US responsible for these attacks if they were carried out by Ukraine. Washington “has hired a reckless bandit, who is trying to damage… a key element of our system of strategic nuclear forces combat control,” he stated.
A US official told the Post that Washington was “concerned” with the news, since “Russia could perceive its deterrent capabilities being targeted.” Speaking on condition of anonymity, the source added: “These sites have not been involved in supporting Russia’s war against Ukraine.”
The two facilities that apparently were attacked are over-the-horizon radar sites near Armavir, Krasnodar Region, and Orsk, Orenburg Region. The latter monitors airspace over the Middle East and China.
A Ukrainian official told the newspaper that Kiev had military reasons to attack both, because Russia had “switched all of its capabilities for war against Ukraine.” By disabling the stations, the country would undermine Russia’s ability to monitor its activities, particularly its use of drones and missiles, the source claimed.
Last week, the Austrian Armed Forces published analysis of the situation, which suggested that the attack in Armavir could have been sanctioned by the US, and was meant as a warning to Moscow, because Kiev was unlikely to get any military value from it.
There is at least 700km between the Voronezh-DM station in Armavir and the location from which Kiev could launch US-supplied Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) ballistic missiles, the report said. It would be difficult for the station to detect those low-flying projectiles at this range. Meanwhile, ICBMs usually fly at altitudes of up to 2,000km and are detectable from much longer distances.
Kiev is currently lobbying the US to allow it to use donated long-range weapons against targets located deep inside Russia. Washington claims it has forbidden attacks outside of the territory claimed by Kiev to prevent further escalation. Ukraine has suffered a series of battlefield setbacks in recent months.