Russia’s missile warning system has been enhanced by a new state-of-the-art radar station near the city of Armavir in southern Russia.

The radar installation, codenamed ‘Voronezh,’ provides wide-range coverage of the potentially hazardous regions to the south of Russian borders.

The Armavir radar system replaces the outdated Ukrainian-based Soviet radars in Sevastopol and Mukachevo. The agreement between Russia and Ukraine on the use of these two radars by Russia’s anti-missile defense forces expired on February 26 at midnight.

Over the past 18 years since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Ukrainian radar system was never

modernized. This led to a high number of static disturbances that could have been mistaken for a real missile launch, Russian defense authorities said.

“By putting into operation this ultra-modern radar station with advanced capabilities near Armavir, we solve the problem of controlling and monitoring the airspace to the south of our borders,” says a source in the Russian Ministry of Defence to Interfax news agency.

This forced Russia to construct a new radar facility and pull out of its agreement with Ukraine. In fact the Ukrainian radars were already unreliable, and the Russian military stopped using data from the Soviet-era radar system long before the radar in Armavir was actually put in commission.

Ukraine has expressed its desire to join NATO, the Cold War military bloc, despite strong opposition from its own citizens and objections from Russia.

After the US announced its plans to deploy elements of an American anti-missile shield in Eastern Europe, something Russia strongly opposes to as it considers them a threat to its security, Moscow has proposed to Washington to create a joint anti-missile security system in Europe.

In June 2007 Vladimir Putin proposed to George W. Bush that the two countries could jointly use a radar station in Gabala, which Russia rents from Azerbaijan, and, currently operating in test mode, a radar facility in Armavir.

At the time the Bush administration declined the offers saying these stations could only be used as ‘supplements’.