The Russian president said that if the United States follows through on its promise to station several types of nuclear-capable missiles in Germany, Russia would deploy previously banned long-range missiles near Western countries. Vladimir Putin Said.
Washington and Berlin announced earlier this month that the United States would begin a “phased deployment” of long-range precision weapons to Germany from 2026, to demonstrate U.S. commitment to NATO and European deterrence.
The weapons would eventually include SM-6 and Tomahawk cruise missiles, as well as “hypersonic weapons in development with significantly longer ranges than Europe’s current ground-launched weapons,” the two governments said in a statement.
Long-range missiles like the SM-6 and Tomahawk would have been banned under the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, which banned nuclear and conventional missiles with ranges ranging from just over 300 miles to about 3,400 miles.
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The United States formally withdrew from the INF Treaty in mid-2019, accusing Russia of violating the treaty, but this accusation NATO But Moscow rejected the idea, and both sides had pulled out of the talks months earlier.
Russia has said it will not resume production of such missiles unless the United States sends its own missiles overseas.
Earlier this year, the U.S. Known as a medium-range missile system The system will be deployed in the northern Philippines. It fires SM-6 and Tomahawk missiles. Putin previously said the medium-range missiles were used in training in Denmark.
Putin said in late June that Moscow would resume production of short- and medium-range nuclear-capable missiles.
Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov“All the hallmarks of the Cold War, with its face-to-face confrontations, are returning,” Trump said earlier this month.
“If the United States implements these plans, we will be released from our unilateral moratorium on the deployment of medium- and short-range offensive weapons, including measures to improve the capabilities of the Navy’s coastal defense forces,” Putin said in a speech in the Russian city of St. Petersburg on Sunday, according to Russian state media.
Moscow is nearing the end of developing such missile systems, the Kremlin leader said, adding: “In light of moves by the United States and its minions in Europe and other parts of the world, we will take similar steps to deploy them.”
“This situation is reminiscent of the Cold War, when the United States deployed Pershing II medium-range ballistic missiles in West Germany,” Putin said.
Putin said the U.S. missiles, due to be deployed in two years’ time, would put Russian national and military command facilities, industrial centers and Moscow’s defense infrastructure within striking range.
“In the future, missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads will have a flight time of about 10 minutes to reach targets on our territory.”
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom, seeking common ground and finding connections.
