Russia is preparing to deploy missiles with nuclear warheads that can strike from 500 to 5500 km

On Sunday, December 29, Russian foreign minister Serhiy Lavrov announced that Russia would lift its moratorium on deploying medium- and short-range missiles with nuclear warheads.

"Our moratorium on deploying such missiles is now practically unviable, and we will have to abandon it," Lavrov said in an interview with Russia's state news agency RIA Novosti.

He justified this stance by claiming that the United States had "ignored warnings from Russia and China and, in practice, began deploying weapons of this class in various regions of the world."

Earlier, the United States announced that it would begin deploying long-range missiles in Germany starting in 2026, as part of preparations for a long-term deployment that would include SM-6 missiles, "Tomahawk" cruise missiles, and hypersonic weapons in development. It was noted that these missiles would be deployed in non-nuclear versions.

Lavrov stated that Russia had demonstrated "determination in implementing compensatory measures" by conducting "combat tests" of the medium-range ballistic missile "Oreshnik," with which the Russian army struck the Ukrainian city of Dnipro at the end of November.

Medium- and short-range missiles are ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles capable of traveling distances from 500 to 5500 kilometers.

The mutual deployment of such missiles would mirror one of the sharpest episodes of the Cold War, when the U.S. deployed "Pershing" missiles in Germany in response to the threat of Soviet "Pioneer" missiles.

At that time, Western countries offered the Soviet Union negotiations on the elimination of such missile systems.

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