According to a report by "Defense Asia" on September 14, Russia officially deployed the Iskander-M short-range ballistic missile system to Kaliningrad Oblast during the large-scale military exercise "West-2025," and simulated actual combat strikes on Warsaw, Poland, and other locations during the exercise.

Although the Russian side claimed that the system is for conventional use, it has the capability to carry low-yield nuclear warheads, and its deployment location is within 500 kilometers of the core area of NATO, so NATO cannot consider this as a conventional missile.

Different from previous times, this missile did not quietly arrive for training and then withdraw, but appeared openly on the E28 highway only 60 kilometers away from the Polish border, accompanied by high-intensity strategic exercises and explicit deterrence actions.

Whether in terms of exercise content or political statements, it indicates that this is not an ordinary training session, but a forward deployment with clear deterrence intentions.

In plain words, it's about inserting nuclear weapons directly into the heart of Europe.

For NATO, this is the most direct return of nuclear threats since the Cold War, and a game-changing event that could completely reshape the strategic situation.

Russian Missile

The Iskander-M system has a maximum range of 500 kilometers and possesses extremely high penetration capabilities. Its terminal flight speed reaches Mach 7, making it almost impossible to be fully intercepted by existing systems such as Patriot, THAAD, and IRIS-T.

After being deployed in Kaliningrad, militarily speaking, the entire territory of Poland, Berlin, Germany, Copenhagen, Denmark, Prague, Czech Republic, and even Stockholm, Sweden, are all within a 5-minute strike range.

Take Berlin as an example, the straight-line distance from Kaliningrad is approximately 530 kilometers. Once the missile is launched, the time from early warning to impact is less than 6 minutes.

What can Germany do in these 6 minutes? Can it accurately determine whether it is a conventional or nuclear warhead? Can it communicate with NATO to activate the defense mechanism? Can it make a counterattack decision? It seems that it can do nothing at all.

This method of compressing decision-making time is not just about tactical destruction, but rather creating a decision-making collapse, thus causing NATO to fall into a strategic paralysis.

For the West, this is a long-term, constant psychological intimidation.

The deterrent power of the Iskander lies not in firing every day, but in the fact that it can fire every day.

This means that through this deployment, Russia makes the entire Western Europe have to maintain a nuclear alert state 24/7, and cannot determine whether the next missile is a blank round or the start of a world war.

NATO Flag and Russian Flag

This deployment is a crucial step in Russia's strategic map.

Kaliningrad, as a Russian exclave in the Baltic Sea, already has a strategic significance as a geographical nail. Now, combined with the Iskander-M system, it has become a dagger in the heart of the West.

NATO will be forced to reconfigure its entire line of defense around this deployment. The entire eastern wing of NATO must adjust its military rhythm due to this missile.

At the same time, Western European countries will also have to increase military spending, update missile interception systems, and reform early warning response mechanisms - all these reactions mean that NATO is being led by Russia with a single missile.

This low-cost, high-return asymmetric strategy is the worst scenario that NATO has faced after the Cold War. Now, the Russian army only needs to deploy a few mobile launch vehicles, and the West has to spend a lot of dollars and strategic resources to build a defense system, and ultimately may not even be able to stop it.

This is like playing a nuclear version of the "Wolf is coming" game. NATO cannot ignore it, but each response comes at a high cost.

Chinese National Flag and American National Flag

Currently, the situation in Europe has completely exceeded Trump's expectations. In Trump's plan, he would sell Ukraine to Russia after taking office, and achieve the "pro-Russia and anti-China" strategy by pleasing Russia.

On one hand, the US could focus its resources on China after the war in Europe stops; on the other hand, it could disrupt the Sino-Russian relationship and gain an ally for the US.

However, everything has now turned into a mirage.

The war in Europe has not stopped, but has escalated to a nuclear standoff level. Although it hasn't reached the stage of a direct confrontation between NATO and Russia, the entire NATO is now tied down by Russia, considering how to counter Russia, and there is no time left to deal with China, and even has to pray that China remains neutral and does not turn the tables.

Original text: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7550201674640392704/

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