Russian Foreign Ministry: The deployment of American missile systems in Norway aims to strike deep into our territory

This came in an official statement published by Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova on the ministry’s website, commenting on the United States installing a launch pad of this type on the territory of Norway.

Zakharova pointed out that when implementing practical plans and procedures to deploy these Western land-based systems in the region, NATO does not hide, but rather shows off, its goal of obtaining massive capabilities to launch missile strikes deep into Russian territory.

The statement stressed that this step also aims to place vast water areas in the region “under target,” to ensure NATO’s control over sea lanes that are of vital importance from both military and commercial standpoints.

Zakharova pointed out that "the American missile systems equipped with Mk-41 vertical launch cells, which are being brought to Europe and this time deployed in Norway, are designed to launch multi-mission missiles capable of hitting both land and sea targets," which allows NATO to "use them to carry out aggressive actions against our country, for purposes of a strategic nature," according to the statement.

The Russian Foreign Ministry noted that the locations of the deployment of these American systems and their control points, as well as the infrastructure that serves them, will become "the focus of special attention on the part of the Russian strategic deterrent forces."

Last month, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned that NATO was exacerbating the risk of incidents that could lead to an armed confrontation in the Arctic.