Reuters– Russia said on Monday that it could be forced to deploy intermediate-range nuclear missiles in Europe in response to alleged NATO plans to do the same.
The warning from Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov raised concerns about an increase in the deployment of weapons on the continent, when the tension between East and West is the highest since the end of the Cold War three decades ago.
Ryabkov stated in an interview with the Russian news agency RIA that Moscow would have to act if NATO refuses a commitment with Russia to avoid an escalation, part of the security guarantees that his government seeks to lower tension in Ukraine.
The United States and its allies have warned Moscow to abandon an alleged plan to invade Ukraine, something that Ryabkov again denied was Russia’s intention.
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Intermediate-range nuclear forces (INF) in Europe were banned under a treaty agreed in 1987 between Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and US President Ronald Reagan, in what was hailed at the time as a important step.
Washington abandoned the pact in 2019 after complaining for years of alleged Russian violations.
Ryabkov said there were “indirect indications” that NATO was redeploying the INF, including its restoration last month of the 56th Artillery Command that operated nuclear-capable Pershing missiles during the Cold War.
“The lack of progress towards a political and diplomatic solution to this problem will lead to our response being of a military and military-technical nature,” he said.
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That is, it will be a confrontation, this will be the next round, the appearance of such resources on our part. Right now there aren’t any, we have a unilateral moratorium. We ask that NATO and the US join this moratorium. “
NATO says there will be no new US missiles in Europe and that it is prepared to prevent them from deploying new Russian missiles with a “measured” response that would only involve conventional weapons.
But Ryabkov said that Russia has a “complete lack of confidence” in NATO.
“They are not allowed to do anything that could in any way increase our security: they believe that they can act as they need to, to their advantage, and we just have to swallow all this and deal with it. This is not going to continue ”, he remarked.
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