Russia Ends Moratorium on Intermediate-Range Nuclear Missile Development

The Russian Foreign Ministry has announced that Russia no longer considers itself bound by the moratorium on the development of intermediate-range nuclear missiles. This decision follows complaints from Sergey Lavrov about "destabilizing actions" by the US and NATO.

The United States withdrew from the INF (Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty) in 2019. Russia initially stated it would maintain a moratorium on the development of such weapons, provided the US did the same.

In a statement, the Russian Foreign Ministry said that the deployment of US-made intermediate-range missiles in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region has created the conditions for lifting the unilateral moratorium.

Vladimir Putin stated in November 2024 that the US withdrawal from the INF treaty was a mistake and that any future missile development would depend on the actions of the US and its allies. The INF treaty, signed in 1987, banned the development of missiles with a range of 500 to 5,500 kilometers.