Russia says ready to repel and retaliate any nuclear strike

Europe, News March 1, 2015 , by IRIA No Comments

A Russian military chief says the country’s Strategic Missile Forces (SMF) are ready to defend the country against any possible “lightning-speed” nuclear strike.

SMF Central Command chief said, a retaliatory strike would take place in all circumstances, “without hesitation”.

“If there’s a challenge to repel a lightning-fast nuclear in any given conditions – it will be done in fixed time, that’s dead true,” the Strategic Missile Forces Central Command’s chief, Major-General Andrey Burbin, told Russian News Service on Saturday.

Russia’s strategic missile forces are positioned geographically in such a way that no global strike can knock them out completely, Burbin said.

Referring to the geographic position of Russia’s missile units, the major general said it will protect them from demolition by “any global strike,” adding that 98 percent of the SMF systems would be new in 2020.

The comments come against the backdrop of a recent boost in NATO’s military presence near Russia’s borders. In 2014, NATO forces held some 200 military exercises with the Western military block’s Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg promising that such maneuvers would continue.

Stoltenberg has recently announced that NATO would immediately be establishing command and control units in six eastern European countries.

Russia has condemned NATO’s exercises and military buildup toward its borders on numerous occasions.

Relations between Russia and NATO strained after Ukraine’s Crimea re-integrated into the Russian Federation following a referendum on March 16, 2014.

NATO ended all practical cooperation with Russia over the ensuing crisis in Ukraine last April.

In December 2014, Moscow approved an updated version of the Russian military doctrine which considers the NATO military buildup as a major foreign threat against Russia’s national security.

RT/MR/HSN/HMV