Polish Party Believes US Missile Defense Facility Designed Against Russia

CC BY 2.0 / US Missile Defense Agency / Aegis Ashore Missile Defence - Hawaii Complex
Aegis Ashore Missile Defence - Hawaii Complex - Sputnik International
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The US Aegis Ashore missile defense complex in the northern Polish village of Redzikowo, construction of which began on Friday, is aimed against Russia, General Secretary of the Polish Zmiana (Change) party Tomasz Jankowski told Sputnik on Friday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The ground-breaking ceremony was held at the Redzikowo Air Base earlier in the day.

"We are certainly against the construction in Poland. Today, the Polish allies say these military installations are only against aggressive countries, for example Iran and North Korea. In our opinion, it's only against Russia," Jankowski said.

Russia has repeatedly expressed its concern about the creation of a US-designed ballistic missile defense system in Europe, approved at the 2010 NATO summit in Lisbon. Poland and Romania joined Spain and Turkey in agreeing to deploy elements of the system on their territories.

"The Polish government, the Polish prime-minister are all on the US feeder. So, in our opinion, any idea aimed at improving relations with Russia under the current government would be ignored," Jankowski added.

Ahead of the ceremony, Polish television reported that local residents and anti-war activists were protesting in Redzikowo, holding signs depicting crossed out rockets, in a show of opposition to the US missile system.

The village of Redzikowo in northern Poland - Sputnik International
US Missile Defense System in Poland Not Directed Against Russia - Warsaw
The United States’ Aegis Ashore system is expected to become operational in Poland in 2018. It is planned to form part of the European missile shield and be armed with land-based Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) interceptors. The SM-3 Block IB is a kill vehicle that destroys ballistic missiles through high-speed impact. Additionally, some 300 troops are expected to be stationed at the base in Redzikowo.

In recent years, the United States has taken significant steps to deploy ballistic missile defense systems throughout Europe under the European Phased Adaptive Approach (EPAA). The Aegis Ashore facility in Poland marks the third phase of the EPAA.

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