President Putin tours an armaments factory<\/p>\n
Russia may deploy new strike weapons in response to the planned U.S. stationing of longer-range and hypersonic missiles in Germany, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Speaking at a naval parade in St Petersburg, Putin vowed \u201cmirror measures\u201d after the U.S. earlier this month announced that it will start deploying the weapons in 2026, to affirm its commitment to NATO and European defense following Moscow\u2019s all-out invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf the U.S. implements such plans, we will consider ourselves free from the previously imposed unilateral moratorium on the deployment of intermediate and shorter-range strike weapons, including increasing the capability of the coastal forces of our navy,\u201d Putin said. He added that Moscow\u2019s development of suitable systems is \u201cin its final stage.\u201d<\/p>\n
Both Washington and Moscow have in recent weeks signaled readiness to deploy intermediate-range ground-based weapons that were banned for decades under a 1987 U.S.-Soviet treaty. The U.S. pulled out of the agreement in 2019, accusing Moscow of conducting missile tests that violated it.<\/p>\n
The allegations, which Russia denied, came as tensions mounted between Moscow and the West in the wake of the downing of a Malaysian airliner<\/a> carrying 298 people over war-torn eastern Ukraine. Two Russians and a pro-Moscow Ukrainian were ultimately convicted over their role in the attack.<\/p>\n Washington and Berlin said in a joint statement this month that the U.S. weapons to be placed in Germany would ultimately include SM-6 missiles, Tomahawk cruise missiles, and \u201cdevelopmental hypersonic weapons\u201d<\/a>, including those with a significantly longer range than the ones currently deployed across Europe.<\/p>\n Most of Russia\u2019s missile systems are capable of carrying either conventional or nuclear warheads. Russia\u2019s deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, said last week that the Kremlin did not rule out new deployments of nuclear missiles in response to the U.S. move.<\/p>\n Ryabkov added that defending Kaliningrad, Russia\u2019s heavily militarized exclave wedged between NATO members Poland and Lithuania, was of particular concern.<\/p>\n Putin has for years cast U.S. deployment of missile infrastructure in Europe as an aggressive move aimed at hamstringing Moscow\u2019s capabilities. The news about the planned stationing of new weapons in Germany came at a NATO summit in Washington earlier this month. At the same event, allies announced that a new U.S. base in Poland, Ukraine\u2019s western neighbor, is ready to enter operation and will be capable of intercepting ballistic missiles.<\/p>\n