(Bloomberg) -- Hungary plans to shift newly acquired air-defense systems close to its border with Ukraine as it braces for potential fallout from the escalation in Russia’s war on Ukraine.
“To be prepared for any eventuality, I’ve ordered that newly procured air patrol and air defense tools be deployed in Hungary’s northeastern region,” Defense Minister Kristof Szalay-Bobrovniczky said late Wednesday in a Facebook video.
Russia ramped up its missile barrages last week that also hit targets in western Ukraine, close to the border with Hungary, a European Union and NATO member. It was part of a rapid escalation in the war since Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential election earlier this month.
Ukraine said on Thursday that Russia launched an intercontinental ballistic missile during an attack on the country following Kyiv’s strikes with Western-made weapons inside Russian territory. It appears to be the first reported use of the missile, designed to hit targets thousands kilometers away, since the beginning of the war.
It followed Ukraine’s deployment of US-made Army Tactical Missile Systems, known as ATACMS, for the first time to strike a military facility in Russia. That was made possible by outgoing US President Joe Biden’s administration, which approved Kyiv’s limited use of the weapons to hit targets inside Russian territory after the deployment of North Korean troops on Russia’s side.
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