President Putin: Russia needs to start producing medium- and short-range missiles

According to RIA Novosti on June 29, during a combat meeting with permanent members of the Security Council, President Vladimir Putin declared that Russia needs to start producing medium- and short-range missiles and put them into operation in accordance with US actions.

“In any case, we need to react to this and make a decision on what we will have to do next. Obviously, we need to start producing these strike systems and then, based on the situation, make a decision on where, if necessary to ensure security, to deploy them,” President Putin stressed.

According to President Putin, a few years ago, the United States, for some reason, withdrew from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. Washington then announced that it would produce such systems. For its part, Moscow announced in 2019 that it would not create and deploy such weapons until Washington sent missiles to any region of the world. However, today the United States not only produces these systems, but also sends them to Europe for exercises. At the same time, according to Mr. Putin, recently American missiles were deployed in the Philippines and it is unclear whether they will be removed from there.

In early May 2024, the Russian Foreign Ministry reported that, in response to Washington's actions, Moscow is stepping up the development and starting to produce medium- and short-range missile systems; and once again warned countries that if such US systems appear in any region of the world, Russia will lift the unilateral ban on their placement.

In early 2019, Washington announced its unilateral withdrawal from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, accusing Moscow of violating it. Russia called the US claims “baseless”, stressing that it fully complies with the terms of the INF Treaty and that questions are raised by the countries’ own actions.

In July 2019, Vladimir Putin signed a law suspending the treaty. In August of that year, the INF Treaty ceased to be in force.

The Russian leader then proposed a ban on the deployment of medium- and short-range missiles in Europe and other regions. He sent his initiative to a number of countries in Europe and Asia, as well as various international organizations.

According to the Russian Defense Ministry, NATO then ignored President Putin's proposal to introduce a moratorium on the deployment of new medium- and short-range missiles, as well as the possibility of developing joint measures to alleviate existing concerns.