MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The ground-breaking ceremony was held at the Redzikowo Air Base earlier in the day.
"We are certainly against the construction in Poland. Today, the Polish allies say these military installations are only against aggressive countries, for example Iran and North Korea. In our opinion, it's only against Russia," Jankowski said.
Russia has repeatedly expressed its concern about the creation of a US-designed ballistic missile defense system in Europe, approved at the 2010 NATO summit in Lisbon. Poland and Romania joined Spain and Turkey in agreeing to deploy elements of the system on their territories.
"The Polish government, the Polish prime-minister are all on the US feeder. So, in our opinion, any idea aimed at improving relations with Russia under the current government would be ignored," Jankowski added.
Ahead of the ceremony, Polish television reported that local residents and anti-war activists were protesting in Redzikowo, holding signs depicting crossed out rockets, in a show of opposition to the US missile system.
In recent years, the United States has taken significant steps to deploy ballistic missile defense systems throughout Europe under the European Phased Adaptive Approach (EPAA). The Aegis Ashore facility in Poland marks the third phase of the EPAA.
