Russia ends moratorium on intermediate-range missile deployment

Moscow: Russia on Monday announced that it was withdrawing from its self-imposed moratorium on the deployment of intermediate-range missiles.

The move comes after US President Donald Trump ordered the repositioning of two American nuclear submarines closer to Russian shores, escalating tensions between the two Cold War-era rivals.

“Russia does not consider itself anymore bound by self-restrictions on deploying intermediate- and shorter-range missiles (INF) as conditions to preserve this moratorium have disappeared,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, signed between the USSR and the US in 1987, did not allow the deployment of missile launchers, ground-launched ballistic missiles, and cruise missiles with a range of 500 to 5,500 km.

The US withdrew from the agreement in 2019.

In a statement, the Russian Foreign Ministry said its repeated warnings on the matter have been ignored and the situation is moving toward the actual deployment of US-made intermediate- and shorter-range ground-based missiles in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region.

Because of this, it said, "...The Russian Foreign Ministry has to attest to the disappearance of any conditions for the preservation of a unilateral moratorium on the deployment of similar arms and is authorised to state that the Russian Federation does not consider itself anymore bound by relevant self-restrictions approved earlier."

Earlier, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Russia reserves freedom of action in the matter of deploying medium- and shorter-range missiles and can use it if necessary, if it has to respond to NATO's "aggressive actions" near the country's borders.

The Foreign Office in Moscow said that actions by the West in the sphere of proliferating such missiles create a "direct threat" to Russian security, requiring certain measures on Moscow's part.

On Friday, Trump wrote on his Truth Social post that he had ordered the redeployment of US submarines "to appropriate regions" allegedly over "extremely provocative statements" by former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who is also the deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council.