Budanov: Russian military industry cannot produce enough modern missiles. Photo: Ukrainian Pravda
The Russian military industry is unable to produce enough advanced missile weapons, especially strategic and theater ones. Defense Intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov said this in an interview with Ukrainian Pravda.
"This is yet another attempt to manipulate and, unfortunately, blackmail the world with nuclear weapons. I emphasize: not Ukraine, but an effort to blackmail the whole world with nuclear weapons," said Budanov, commenting on Russia’s withdrawal from the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START).
Today, this statement is meaningless. We should have been concerned if Russia had pulled out of New START a year ago, the Defense Intelligence chief said.
However, this year of full-scale war has "completely destroyed" the global myth of the power of Russia’s military-industrial complex.
Theoretically, Russia is capable of producing a couple of ballistic missiles with a range of 5,000 kilometers. However, in this kind of arms race, Russia "has no theoretical chance" of surpassing the West, Kyrylo Budanov emphasized.
Context. On February 21, when Putin gave a stand-up performance before Russia’s Federal Assembly, Russia planned a test launch of the Sarmat ballistic missile. However, the media reported that the launch had failed.