Official announcements from the Russian government or credible international defense monitoring agencies

Russia to End Missile Moratorium Citing U.S. and NATO Actions

Dec 29, 2024, 06:33 AM

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov announced that Russia will abandon its unilateral moratorium on the deployment of short- and medium-range missiles. Lavrov stated that the decision comes as a response to the United States deploying similar weapons in various regions, which he described as destabilizing actions by the U.S. and NATO. The moratorium, initially observed following the U.S. withdrawal from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty in 2019, is now deemed unsustainable. Lavrov emphasized that the U.S. has ignored warnings from Russia and China while moving forward with the deployment of such weapons. He added that this decision is now inevitable. The INF Treaty, signed in 1987, had prohibited the production and deployment of missiles with ranges between 500 and 5,500 kilometers.