The treaty that led to the removal of an entire category of nuclear weapons that threatened Europe, abandoned by Russia

Russia is no longer considered to be related to the morals regarding the conduct of short -range and average rockets, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Moscow announced on Monday, according to Reuters.

The rockets with an action ray between 500 and 5,500 kilometers, which in the communist age had nuclear foco and were directed to the European members of NATO, were destroyed at the end of the 1980s, based on the Treaty on Nuclear Forces with intermediate range (INF), signed in the last years of the Soviet Union by Mihail Gorbachev From that moment, notes The Moscow Times.

The US withdrew from the Treaty on Nuclear Forces with an intermediate range (INF) in 2019, in Donald Trump's first term, accusing Russia to violate him. Since then, Moscow said he would not carry such weapons unless Washington does.

However, the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sergei Lavrov, has reported since December 2024 that Russia will have to respond to what he has described as “destabilizing actions” of the US and NATO in the strategic sphere.

“Since our repeated warnings about this issue have been ignored, and the situation evolves on the effective conduct of inferior American manufacturing missiles in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region, the Russian Foreign Ministry finds the disappearance of conditions for maintaining a unilateral morality on the deployment of similar weapons,” the Ministry said on Monday, ” The Moscow Times.

In a statement from 2019, NATO stated that the INF Treaty was crucial for Euro-Atlantic security for decades “, as it” eliminated a whole category of nuclear weapons that threatened Europe in the 1980s “.

The 9M729 rocket in the Iskander complex can reach the Western European capitals

According to American data, Russia already has in Arsenal missiles that fall into the category of short and medium -range. This is the 9M729 rocket from the Iskander complex, which can be equipped with nuclear focoa.

Although the declared range of the system is 500 km, the US believes that the 9M729 rocket is capable of flying much further, and if it is carried out in the Kaliningrad region, its radius of action covers the capitals of Western Europe.

Following the collapse of the Treaty with the US, Russia had declared a “volunteer moratorium” on the short -range and medium -range rockets, which target the European countries.

In the summer of 2024, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the resumption of missile production that enters the Inf category.

“The United States, under an unexpected pretext, have retired from this treaty and announced that they will produce such missile systems,” Putin said.

“We have to react to this and decide what we should do in this direction. Apparently, we must start producing these attack systems and then, based on the real situation, to decide where, if necessary to ensure our security, to carry out them,” said Russia leader.