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Moscow believes that conditions for maintaining the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty with the US have “disappeared” and “no longer considers itself bound” by it, RT reported citing a statement from the Russian Foreign Ministry.
The INF Treaty, which banned ground-launched missiles with ranges of 500–5,500km, collapsed in 2019 when Washington withdrew, citing Russian violations. Moscow has denied the claims, accusing the US itself of developing banned missiles. Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that the collapse of the INF will significantly erode the global security framework, according to RT.
“The Russian Foreign Ministry notes the disappearance of conditions for maintaining the unilateral moratorium on the deployment of similar weapons and is authorized to state that Russia no longer considers itself bound by the corresponding self-imposed restrictions previously adopted,” the statement reads, according to RT.
According to the ministry, the “actions of Western countries” are creating a “direct threat” to Russian security. It also noted that last year, the US deployed a Typhon missile launcher in the Philippines. The statement also referenced the Talisman Sabre exercise in Australia, where the US Army also fired Typhon.
The Typhon is a mobile ground-based launcher designed to launch Tomahawk cruise missiles (range up to 1,800km) and SM-6 multipurpose missiles (range up to 500km).
The Foreign Ministry also took notice of the Australian Army testing an American Precision Strike Missile (PrSM) for the first time in July. The PrSM is a has a maximum range beyond 500km and “is central to strengthening Australia’s land and maritime strike capability,” according to the country’s Defense Ministry.
The Russian statement added further: “Decisions on specific parameters of response measures will be made by Russia’s leadership based on an interagency analysis of the scale of the deployment of American and other Western ground-based intermediate-range and shorter-range missiles, as well as the overall development of the situation in the field of international security and strategic stability.”