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Russia to Lift Ban on Nuclear Missile Deployment: Lavrov.
Russia will abandon a nuclear arms treaty with the U.S. banning the deployment of short- and intermediate-range nuclear missiles, Moscow’s foreign minister said.
“Today, it is obvious that, for example, our moratorium on the deployment of INF [Intermediate Range Nuclear] missiles is practically no longer viable and will have to be abandoned,” Russia’s long-time foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, told Russian state news agency RIA Novosti.
Why It Matters
Lavrov’s comments, which aren’t surprising, put a more formal end to a Cold War-era arms control agreement at a moment when Russia is accused of nuclear sabre-rattling and the U.S. looks on with deep concern at China’s nuclear and military build-up.
The INF Treaty, signed in 1987 by Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev, is no longer in force and does not bind either state. The INF Treaty banned nuclear and conventional ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges between just over 300 miles and around 3,400 miles.
The U.S. formally pulled out of the INF Treaty in mid-2019, during president-elect Donald Trump‘s first term in office, after accusing Russia of breaching the terms of the agreement by developing the SSC-8, also known as the 9M729 ground-launched cruise missile.
NATO also accused Russia of violating the treaty, which Moscow denied. Both sides had suspended participation months earlier.
Russia then said it would not deploy missiles banned under this treaty “until US-manufactured missiles of similar classes” are rolled out, known as its INF moratorium.
What to Know
Lavrov told RIA Novosti that “the United States arrogantly ignored warnings from Russia and China and, in practice, moved on to deploying weapons of this class in various regions of the world.”
Moscow has said the U.S. had violated the INF Treaty with the Aegis Ashore system, a ballistic missile defense system deployed in Europe. The system is able to deploy long-range offensive cruise missiles, the Kremlin said.
Washington denied this, saying the “system is only capable of launching defensive interceptor missiles” allowed under the treaty.
Trump, as he pulled the U.S. from the treaty, said Washington would “move forward with developing its own intermediate-range, conventionally armed, ground-launched missile system.”
In April, the U.S. military said it had deployed the Mid-Range Capability (MRC) missile system to the northern Philippines, which can fire Tomahawk cruise missiles with a range of around 1,000 miles. This would have breached the INF Treaty if it had still been in force.
“The abandonment of unilateral self-restrictions introduced by Russia after the U.S. withdrawal from the INF Treaty is inevitable,” Lavrov said in late May.
In July, the U.S. and Germany jointly announced that Washington would deploy conventionally armed ground-launched intermediate-range missiles in the European country on a rotational basis from 2026. This will “include SM-6, Tomahawk, and developmental hypersonic weapons, which have significantly longer range than current land-based fires in Europe,” the White House said at the time.
Russia said it tested a new, experimental intermediate-range ballistic missile, dubbed the “Oreshnik,” in a strike on central Ukraine last month. Ukrainian authorities originally reported the use of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said Moscow will mass-produce the “Oreshnik,” and key ally Alexander Lukashenko, the long-time Belarusian leader, has said they will be deployed in Belarus.
“The recent combat test of the latest medium-range hypersonic system “Oreshnik” convincingly demonstrated our capabilities and determination to implement compensatory measures,” Lavrov was cited as saying.
What Happens Next
Lavrov said that “extreme anti-Russian” sentiment among U.S. authorities meant that “the conditions for strategic dialogue with Washington are currently absent.”
“Until the Americans abandon their current anti-Russian course, we will not conduct any negotiations with them on arms control,” he added.
Lavrov said the New START Treaty, which is due to expire in February 2026, was still in force, but it’s not clear what will happen in little over a year’s time.
The New START Treaty is the last remaining nuclear weapons treaty, and caps the number of deployed strategic warheads both the U.S. and Russia can have.
Strategic nuclear weapons are typically described as highly destructive, and designed to target population centers. There is no current treaty curbing the numbers of tactical nuclear weapons, which have a smaller yield and are sometimes described as for limited battlefield use.
“Much can still happen in the coming year. So at this stage it would be premature, and even unwise, to announce our possible moves in this sensitive area,” the foreign minister said.
(Miami herald)