The INF Treaty, which banned ground-launched missiles with ranges of 500–5,500km, collapsed in 2019 when Washington withdrew, citing Russian violations. Moscow has denied the claims, accusing the US itself of developing banned missiles. Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that the collapse of the INF will significantly erode the global security framework.
“The Russian Foreign Ministry notes the disappearance of conditions for maintaining the unilateral moratorium on the deployment of similar weapons and is authorized to state that Russia no longer considers itself bound by the corresponding self-imposed restrictions previously adopted,” the statement reads.
According to the ministry, the “actions of Western countries” are creating a “direct threat” to Russian security. It also noted that last year, the US deployed a Typhon missile launcher in the Philippines. The statement also referenced the Talisman Sabre exercise in Australia, where the US Army also fired Typhon.
The Typhon is a mobile ground-based launcher designed to launch Tomahawk cruise missiles (range up to 1,800km) and SM-6 multipurpose missiles (range up to 500km).
The Foreign Ministry also took notice of the Australian Army testing an American Precision Strike Missile (PrSM) for the first time in July. The PrSM is a has a maximum range beyond 500km and “is central to strengthening Australia’s land and maritime strike capability,” according to the country’s Defense Ministry.
The Russian statement added further: “Decisions on specific parameters of response measures will be made by Russia’s leadership based on an interagency analysis of the scale of the deployment of American and other Western ground-based intermediate-range and shorter-range missiles, as well as the overall development of the situation in the field of international security and strategic stability.”
Moscow has repeatedly voiced the possibility of lifting the moratorium, for example, after the US announced plans to deploy long-range weapons in Germany in 2026. In November, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia is developing intermediate- and shorter-range missiles in response to Washington’s actions. The Kremlin has not ruled out deploying the missiles in the Asia-Pacific region.
US President Donald Trump, who during his first term withdrew from the INF and the 1992 Open Skies Treaty which allowed conducting surveillance flights over each other’s territory, has suggested that he would resume negotiations on maintaining the existing restrictions on nuclear weapons with Russia.
