MOSCOW, February 27 (RIA Novosti) - Russia no longer
depends on Ukraine to provide it with strategic missile
tracking data following the launch of its new radar facility in
the country's south, the commander of Russia's Space Forces
said on Friday.
Russia's Voronezh-DM radar site in the southern town of
Armavir went into service on Thursday.
Maj. Gen. Oleg Ostapenko said the Armavir radar would
monitor missile routes and probable directions for a missile
attack in the south and southeast of Russia in place of the
early warning facilities in Mukachevo in western Ukraine and
Sevastopol, the Crimea.
Russia terminated a 1997 agreement with Ukraine on the use
of both Ukrainian radars in February 2008 on the grounds that
they had become obsolete.
With an effective range of 4,000 kilometers (2,500 miles)
the Voronezh-class radar has capabilities similar to its
predecessors, the Dnepr and Daryal, which are currently
deployed outside Russia, but uses less energy and is more
environmentally friendly.
Gen. Ostapenko said Russia would build more radar stations
to replace the existing ones, adding that the Armavir facility
was the second, after the Lekhtusi complex, in the Leningrad
Region, which had been put into operation in March 2006.
Washington wants to place 10 missile interceptors in
Poland and a radar station in the neighboring Czech Republic,
purportedly to counter a missile threat from Iran and other
"rogue" states. Russia has fiercely opposed the plans, saying
the European shield would destroy the strategic balance of
forces and threaten Russia's national interests.
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