Russia will no longer abide by a defunct treaty prohibiting the deployment of intermediate-range missiles, the country’s Foreign Ministry announced on Monday.
But Washington has accused Moscow of violating the pact for over a decade, and Russia has been known to use missiles with ranges banned by the treaty during its war against Ukraine.
In a statement, the Russian Foreign Ministry said that Moscow “no longer considers itself bound” by its “previously adopted self restrictions” under the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, noting that the United States was moving to deploy intermediate-range missiles in Europe and Asia.
The U.S. Defense Department did not immediately comment on the Foreign Ministry’s statement on Monday.
The 1987 pact, also known as the I.N.F. Treaty, banned ground-launch ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges of 500 to 5,500 kilometers (311 to 3,418 miles). As a result, more than 2,600 Soviet and U.S. missiles were eliminated, in what was seen as a Cold War breakthrough.
In 2019, during President Trump’s first term, the United States pulled out of the agreement. The Trump administration argued that Russia had long been violating the treaty with the deployment of 9M729 cruise missiles, also known as SSC-8 missiles. Russia denied any knowledge of the violations.
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The post Russia Says It Will Stop Abiding by Missile Treaty appeared first on New York Times.
