Like conflict in Ukraine is raging, residents of but region in northern Poland, which house US missile facility fears they could be targeted by Russia in case of wider conflict.
“If a serious armed conflict breaks out out, first the blow will be aimed at our shield”, – said Ryszard Kwiatkowski, former deputy mayor of city of Slupsk, home up to about 90,000 people.
Washington stated that the in neighboring village of Redzikovo, which will enter service this year, is designed to protect the West from ballistic missiles fired countries like Iran.
But Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke out against object, saying it’s not pure defensive and is instead aimed at Russia.
Bases like Redzikovo in the heart of Russian requirements for NATO military union to pull back deployments from former communist Eastern Europe.
A similar facility in the United States, officially referred to as Aegis Ashore, is located already up and working in Romania.
Kwiatkowski was a critic of object with work began in 2016. He also skeptical about his defensive goal.
“Not offensive or defensive systems. Everything military the systems are aggressive,” he told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
He said it was “absurd” to say that the object was intended to be defense against countries like Iran and warned that the missiles are based in Russian exclave of Kaliningraders could easily hit Redzikov.
“From start it was intended (as defense) against Russia. They don’t hide it anymore,” he said.
That former local official also complained that the installation was based in but former airport, where there could be an industrial zone, and said that he had put off potential investors from area.
While some residents shared Kwiatkowski’s concerns, he acknowledged that local demonstrations against presence of object never put together more than a few dozen people. But this may change soon.
“Until recently, it was not the object that bothered me, but the assault. on Ukraine shows that we can’t be sure of anything,” said Tomasz Czeszczyk, a local archaeologist and journalist. “Putin said more more than once this base in Poland, which just 230 kilometers (143 miles) from the Russian border, should never been created… that the rockets that can be fired here would be also to be offensive,” he said.
“When I say now with my friends in Slupsk, they tell me that we are now the main goal for Putin after Ukraine,” he said.
And here is Eva Trap, a pensioner who said she was not interested in politics said she was calm about the US missile system on her threshold.
“I feel more it’s safer to know it’s there than if it wasn’t there, she said. “I am a simple, humble person. I don’t think about far problems. This how I live Okay.”
