Russian President Vladimir Putin (Photo by Reuters)
Russian President Vladimir Putin says the country has successfully test-fired a simultaneous salvo of the Zircon hypersonic missiles, describing the move as "a big event" for his nation.
"The tests were conducted successfully, immaculately," Putin said Friday in televised remarks at a government meeting, adding that the salvo launch of the missile had been carried out overnight.
"This is a big event in the life of the country and a considerable step in strengthening Russias security and improving its defense capability," he added amid growing tensions between Moscow and the US-led NATO military alliance over its bid to expand eastward closer to Russian borders, as well as the persisting Ukraine conflict.
Putin first unveiled the development of the supersonic missile during a state of the nation address back in February 2019, noting that it could strike targets at sea and on land within a range of 1,000 kilometers at a speed of Mach 9.
The latest test, however, marked the first time that Russian authorities reported a successful simultaneous launch test of multiple Zircon missiles as other world powers race to develop more advanced armaments as a perceived instrument to push their interests across the globe.
Russia, along with the US, France and China have so far been experimenting with the so-called hypersonic glide vehicles - defined as reaching speeds of at least Mach 5.
US became arrogant after fall of Soviet Union: Gorbachev
Putins announcement coincided with the anniversary of stepping down of Russias last Soviet-era president Mikhail Gorbachev and the ensuring collapse of the former Soviet Union, which also led to the eastward expansion of NATO.
In an interview on Friday, Gorbachev, 90, used the occasion to emphasize that the US grew "arrogant and self-confident" following the collapse of the Soviet Union, recalling that there was a "triumphant mood in the West, especially in the United States."
"How can one count on equal relations with the United States and the West in such a position," Gorbachev underlined in the interview with state news agency RIA Novosti. "They grew arrogant and self-confident. They declared victory in the Cold War."
He insisted, however, that Moscow and Washington were "together" in what he described as an effort to pull the world away from confrontation and the nuclear race.
"No, the winners decided to build a new empire. Hence the idea of NATO expansion," Gorbachev said, but noted that he still welcomed the forthcoming security talks between Moscow and Washington and hoped that it would prove fruitful.
The development came nearly a week after Moscow demanded legal guarantees from the US-led Western alliance and emphasized that NATO must halt its eastward expansion.
The remarks also coincided with Putins annual press conference on Friday in which he reiterated that it is the Western countries that must immediately give Russia security guarantees, not the other way round, further insisting that NATOs eastward expansion is unacceptable.
Speaking about Ukraine, Putin said that Russia was responding to threats from Kiev. He called the 2014 Maidan Revolution a "bloody coup" that happened despite the readiness of Ukraines then-President Viktor Yanukovych to avoid it. He also accused Ukrainian extremists of planning operations to retake Crimea and the Donbass.
Putin said that he personally tried to discourage former Ukrainian President Poroshenko from launching a military operation in Donbass. He said Kiev does not want to honor the Minsk agreements and adopts laws that run counter to these accords.
He added Ukraine and the West want to portray Russia as a party to the conflict in that country. He said incumbent Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has been under the influence of radical elements after coming to power, like the countrys previous leaders.
This is while Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov also stressed on Friday that Washingtons efforts to "drag" Ukraine into NATO, poses "unacceptable threats" to Russia.
"The policy towards pulling Kiev into NATO with a prospect of strike missile systems appearing near our borders creates unacceptable security threats to Russia, provoking serious military risks for all the parties involved, up to a large-scale conflict in Europe," Lavrov added during an interview with Bosnian daily Oslobodjenje.
Russia slams attack on consulate in Ukraine as terrorist act
Meanwhile, the Russian consulate in the Western Ukrainian city of Lvov came under attack on Friday when an unidentified assailant threw a Molotov cocktail at its entrance.
Russias Foreign Ministry condemned the assault as a "terrorist act" and blamed the incident on Kievs Western-backed efforts to stir up anti-Russia hatred in the divided country.
"It is clear that this outrageous and unacceptable act has become a result of stirring up Russophobic hysteria in Ukraine and incitement to hatred against the Russian Federation," the ministry declared in a statement as quoted in an RT report.
Tensions have been mounting in eastern Ukraine since November, when several Western media outlets reported that Russia had been amassing troops near the border and claimed that Moscow was planning a large-scale military invasion of the country.
Relations between Ukraine and Russia have been deteriorating since 2014, when the then-Ukrainian territory of Crimea voted in a referendum to fall under Russian sovereignty. The US and the European Union backed Kiev, refusing to recognize the referendum results and later imposing sanctions on Moscow.
Ukraine as well as the EU and the US also claim that Russia has a hand in an ongoing conflict that has erupted in the Donbass region of Ukraine between government forces and ethnic Russians since 2014. The West imposed sanctions on Russia after accusing it of interfering in the conflict. Moscow has fiercely rejected such allegations.
LINK: https://www.ansarpress.com/english/25183
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