MOSCOW, July 21. /TASS/. Four advanced radar stations are shielding Russia’s southern strategic aerospace area, Deputy Defense Minister Nikolai Pankov said in the lower house of parliament on Tuesday.

"Four advanced radars located on Russian territory are currently operating in the southern direction. The Balkhash station [in Kazakhstan] has become redundant in the Russian missile attack warning system," the defense official said.

In turn, Space Force Commander Colonel-General Alexander Golovko confirmed there was no longer need for the Balkhash radar station on the territory of Kazakhstan.

"The new stations that are now in Barnaul and Armavir have an operating range of up to 6,000 km and these are next-generation radars. The need for operating the station in Balkhash has completely disappeared today," he said.

Before the summer of 2020, the Balkhash radar station in Kazakhstan functioned as part of Russia’s missile attack warning system. It provided the radar field for missile attack warning in the southern strategic aerospace direction. The radar in Kazakhstan was withdrawn from its combat alert on June 1 this year.

The State Duma (the lower house of Russia’s parliament) adopted a bill on Tuesday on terminating an agreement with Kazakhstan on the terms of the transfer and the procedure for the further use of the Balkhash station on the territory of Kazakhstan in the Russian missile attack warning system.