During the Vienna talks on military security and arms control, the head of the Russian delegation, Konstantin Gavrilov, indicated that “on May 24, as part of the Defender Europe 2022 military exercises on the island of Bornholm, the American M142 HIMARS missile and artillery systems were deployed with operational-tactical missiles with a range of 500 km, for possible destruction of targets in the Kaliningrad region in the far west of Russia.

“We strongly warn the United States and its supporters that any such step will be considered a military attack on our country and will inevitably lead to an unacceptable escalation of the conflict,” Gavrilov said during the OSCE forum. Website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

He explained that “Russia is very negative about the new eleventh package of US military assistance to Ukraine, which includes HIMARS missile systems.”

He stressed: “The attempts by the United States to show that the supply of these systems constitutes a form of deterrence that does not satisfy us. No matter how this issue is discussed on the other side of the ocean, the transfer of such weapons increases the risk of a direct confrontation between Russia and the United States.