SEOUL, South Korea — Russia tested two anti-ship missiles into the Sea of Japan on Tuesday, days after the Japanese prime minister visited Ukraine and the same day a US aircraft carrier docked in South Korea as part of joint training exercises.
Two Russian fast missile boats fired two projectiles at decoy targets 62 miles away during exercises in the Gulf of Peter the Great south of Vladivostok in the Sea of Japan, the Kremlin said. According to The Moscow Times, the missiles were “Moskit” (“Mosquito”) cruise missiles capable of traveling at three times the speed of sound and having a range of more than 100 miles.
The missile tests follow last week’s flight of two nuclear-capable Russian TU-95 “Bear” strategic bombers over the Sea of Japan, further escalating tensions in the region.
Relations between Moscow and Tokyo have been punctuated by territorial disputes in the Sea of Japan from the end of World War II, and Japan has taken an unexpectedly active role in the NATO-led coalition opposed to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the international Opposition judges Kremlin.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told Japanese media that Japan will “continue to monitor the moves of the Russian military.” Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi said that in addition to operations in Ukraine, Russian units are “intensifying their activities in the Far East.”
The US-South Korean military drills have infuriated North Korea, and it was not known if the Russian missile tests coincided with the drills. The Biden administration has accused Pyongyang of aiding the Russian war effort by supplying artillery shells to replenish depleted Russian arsenals in Ukraine.
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Meanwhile, the largest South Korean-US exercises since 2017 are unfolding on, over and off the peninsula, infuriating North Korea.
Pyongyang said last week it had tested a Russian-style nuclear-weapons-capable underwater drone and on Tuesday revealed what it described as tactical nuclear warheads.
Also on Tuesday, the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz called at Busan, South Korea. Amphibious landing exercises involving American, British and Korean marines are scheduled to hit beaches on South Korea’s east coast on Wednesday.
Whether the widely publicized Russian missile tests coincided with these acts is unknown, but they follow humiliating failures and bloody setbacks for the Russian Navy and naval forces in Ukraine.
Russia’s sinking fleet
At a time when Moscow’s struggling military is struggling with arms supplies in Ukraine – to the point where it’s demolishing tanks designed in the 1960s and upgrading them for front-line service – the agents used in Pacific waters are hardly first rate. Bear bombers date from 1952, while Moskit missiles entered service in 1984.
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The Russian Pacific Fleet is fielding two brigades of naval infantry and both units have been sent west to the Ukrainian front.
The 155th Brigade, based in Vladivostok, was decimated in a series of failed attacks on the town of Vuhledar, and the 40th Brigade, based in Kamchatka, was battered in earlier fighting.
Russia’s Black Sea Fleet has withdrawn from Ukraine’s coast after its flagship cruiser Moskva sank in April. In June, Snake Island — an outpost that extends Ukraine’s reach 22 miles beyond its coast — was recaptured by Ukrainian forces after it was captured by Russia in an iconic early action of the war.
Russia, a transcontinental power, does not have a reputation for naval excellence.
Its Pacific Fleet was defeated by Japanese forces in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905, necessitating reinforcements from the Russian Baltic Fleet. After a grueling voyage, this fleet was crushed by Japan in the Tsushima Strait – the first time an Asian power defeated a European power in the Industrial Age.
In World War II, Moscow’s Pacific Fleet played a significant role only in the last three weeks of the conflict, supporting Soviet shock attacks on Manchuria and Korea while conquering southern Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands from Tokyo. To this day, Japan is still striving for the return of the Kuril Islands.
Source : www.washingtontimes.com