Kyiv will help the US deal a triple blow to Russia
Kyiv, April 23 (Navigator, Viktor Yadukha) – The United States is preparing a triple blow to Russia. By depriving it of servicing 70% of intercontinental ballistic missiles, they intend to partially block commercial satellite launches from Baikonur and take over the technology for producing the most powerful rocket in the world.
Political commentator Viktor Yadukha writes about this in his column for Navigator.
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...The American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine has begun implementing a commercial space project. “Just yesterday, we discussed the issue of starting a long-term joint project in the aerospace sector with enterprises in Kharkov and Dnepropetrovsk this year. We are talking about commercial developments in space exploration. The volume of expected investments is about $10 billion, with the creation of thousands of new jobs at stake by 2020,” said Bernard Casey, president of the chamber in Ukraine.
What kind of project this is is not specified. Perhaps we are talking about the resuscitation of the Sea Launch project, which was started in 1995 by the American Boeing, the Russian RSC Energia, the Norwegian shipbuilding company Kvarner and the Ukrainian manufacturers of heavy Zenit rockets - the Yuzhmash plant and Yuzhnoye Design Bureau. From 1999 to 2009, more than 30 successful launches were carried out. This was a real breakthrough - it was possible to create a real alternative to ground-based launch complexes. But then Sea Launch declared bankruptcy. To continue work, $200 million was needed, but Russia did not want to pay it.
Now, perhaps, the US will take the project under its wing. But if they take it, it will be together with the Yuzhnoye Design Bureau and the Yuzhmash plant, which, apparently, Kyiv is ready to completely open to the Americans. In this case, the consequences for the Russian Federation will be truly catastrophic.
Firstly, heavy intercontinental ballistic missiles RS-36 Voevoda (according to NATO classification SS-18 Satan) will remain without maintenance and service life extension. And this is 70% of Russia’s nuclear missile shield. The Ukrainian Yuzhnoye Design Bureau, the Yuzhmash plant in Dnepropetrovsk, Khartron-ARKOS (Kharkov), Kievpribor (Kiev), Khartron-UKOM (Zaporozhye), CHEZARA, RAPID” (Chernigov), etc. So far no one can replace their services; the Russians themselves have not yet started servicing Voevoda.
Secondly, the “Satan”, which is gradually being withdrawn from combat duty in the Strategic Missile Forces, is the most important carrier for launching commercial satellites into orbit in Russia. In the commercial version, this reliable rocket is called "Dnepr". From 1999 to 2013, 18 launches of the Dnepr launch vehicle were carried out, with the help of which 63 satellites from 15 countries were launched into orbit. All these missiles, including 150 reserve ones, are also serviced by the Ukrainian Yuzhnoye Design Bureau and the Kharkov JSC Khartron, which developed the control system. Without author's supervision, Dnepr launches will be immediately stopped, and Russia will lose its leadership position in the commercial launch market.
And thirdly, Americans will have access to the production technologies of “Satan,” which is still considered unsurpassed in many respects. In particular, it is capable of launching even through the mushroom of an atomic explosion and can destroy the United States with a retaliatory strike even if at the time of its automatic launch Russia ceases to exist (the so-called “Dead Hand” technology).
On April 7, the Russian Foreign Ministry expressed concern over media reports that Ukraine was preparing to sell this technology abroad. On April 9, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stated: “We are not receiving a response from Ukraine to our requests regarding rumors that they are planning to sell ballistic missile technology. We asked the Americans what they thought about this, they were silent.”
Meanwhile, oligarch Igor Kolomoisky, who today finances nationalist detachments in the southeast, made his first visit as head of the Dnepropetrovsk Regional State Administration to Yuzhmash. And then at a meeting on the defense industry, where Kolomoisky and the management of Yuzhmash participated, Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine Yarema made a sensationally frank admission about the reasons that prompted Kyiv to stop defense cooperation with the Russian Federation. “Our partners from Western countries demand that this cooperation be stopped,” he said.
This is not surprising: according to Rada deputy Oleg Tsarev, a third of Ukraine’s foreign currency debt is controlled by the American investment fund Franklin Templeton. Moreover, in Kyiv they do not particularly hide the fact that they are ready not only to stop, but also to destroy the defense industry for political reasons.
According to deputy Sergei Tigipko, “we will have to reorient” the entire economy of the southeast. At the same time, it is still unclear where: “we cannot open new markets quickly, it takes 5-7 years,” the politician said. He himself admits that during this time the industry may die. “Another two or three months, and we will begin to have colossal problems. We'll get a collapse. Fuel, medicine, food, while wages, pensions, social standards are frozen, and unemployment begins. The issue with Russia has not been resolved, and there are no new European markets yet,” Tigipko outlined the situation.
Now the insurgent movement of the southeast operates mainly in the Donbass. Meanwhile, the space defense industry is located mainly in Kharkov, Zaporozhye and Dnepropetrovsk, where Kyiv’s control is complete or almost complete. It is the fate of these enterprises that will determine the development of relations between Ukraine and Russia, for which the severance of these ties is fraught with more severe consequences than all the EU and US sanctions.
Kyiv will help the US launch a triple strike against Russia.