BRUSSELS, December 16. /ITAR-TASS/. The deployment of Iskander missile squadrons in Russia’s westernmost Kaliningrad region was not discussed with the EU foreign ministers, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said after a meeting with them on Monday, December 16.
“As regards an allegedly sensational article in some German newspaper, our Defense Ministry has provided explanations. This issue was not discussed today,” he said.
This past weekend, some mass media reported that Iskander systems would be deployed in the Kaliningrad region.
The deployment of Iskander missiles in the Kaliningrad region does not run counter to international agreements, the Russian Defense Ministry said.
“Missile troops and artillery units of the Western Military District are in fact armed with Iskander operational and tactical missile systems,” Defense Ministry Spokesperson Igor Konashenkov said.
He stressed that “concrete areas where Iskander squadrons are stationed in the Western Military District do not run counter to international agreements.”
The Iskander is a tactical ballistic missile system manufactured by the Federal State Unitary Enterprise, Design Bureau of Machine Building, for the Russian ground forces. Iskander missiles were first test fired in 1996. The Russian army acquired the Iskander-M extended-range ballistic missile system in 2006.
The Iskander mobile missile system can engage ground targets such as command posts and communications nodes, troops in concentration areas, air and missile defense facilities and fixed and rotary-wing aircraft at airfields.
The Iskander was developed in the 1990s.