Moscow says it will retaliate if Ukraine hosts US anti-missile defenses

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A Patriot anti-missile system

    
Russia will take retaliatory measures to protect itself if Ukraine decides to station US anti-missile defense systems in its territory, Kremlin spokesman told the media.

Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday.

He was commenting on a recent statement by the head of Ukraine's Security Service, the SBU, Aleksandr Turchinov, which claimed that Ukraine faces a In an interview-structured statement published by the Ukrainian Security Council's website, Turchinov claims Russia has stationed nuclear missiles on the Crimean peninsula.

Turchinov said.

Turchinov said in his statement.

The statement also calls for additional international sanctions against Russia, including blocking the Bosphorus strait from Russian navy vessels and shutting Russia off from the international SWIFT financial transfer system.

When asked about Turchinov's statements on hosting anti-missile defense, a NATO representative told the RIA Novosti news agency he could not comment, saying only that the alliance was Although NATO leaders have expressed support for Ukraine, it is not a member of the alliance.

Russia has already rebuffed the idea, with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov saying at a Federation Council meeting that Turchinov's statements are and

In March, the Director of the Russian Foreign Ministry's department of non-proliferation and arms control said Moscow had the right to station nuclear weapons in Crimea, since the peninsula is Russian territory since the 2014 referendum and its reunification with Russia. He said, however, that there are no plans to put any nukes there.

Despite that, last week at a NATO gathering in Turkey the alliance's secretary-general said he was by Moscow's statements about the possibility of nuclear deployment in Crimea and warned Russia against it.

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