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Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened a tit-for-tat response should Washington deploy long-range missiles in Germany, saying Moscow would answer by placing similar missiles within striking distance of the West.
Washington and Berlin announced earlier this month that the U.S. will deploy the arms in Germany starting in 2026, along with Tomahawk cruise missiles and developmental hypersonic weapons. The missiles “have significantly longer range than current land-based fires in Europe,” the White House said in a statement.
The move is meant to show the U.S.’s commitment to NATO and its European allies.
In a speech on Sunday to mark Russian navy day, Putin accused the U.S. of escalating tensions, saying “we will take mirror measures to deploy, taking into account the actions of the United States, its satellites in Europe and in other regions of the world,” Reuters reported.
The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty — signed in 1987 — banned ground-based missiles with a range of more than 500 kilometers. The U.S. withdrew from the treaty in 2019, citing Moscow’s development of the 9M729 ground-launched cruise missile, known in NATO circles as the SSC-8.
“Now that we have withdrawn, the Department of Defense will fully pursue the development of these ground-launched conventional missiles as a prudent response to Russia’s actions and as part of the joint force’s broader portfolio of conventional strike options,” former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said when announcing the withdrawal in 2019.
