Russia will abandon moratorium on deployment of short and medium range missiles, Lavrov tells RIA

Russia will scrap a proposed moratorium on the deployment of short- and medium-range missiles as the United States started to deploy such weapons, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview with RIA news agency published on Sunday.

"We are assessing the situation on the basis of an analysis of the destabilising actions of the United States and NATO in the strategic sphere and, accordingly, the evolution of the threats that arise from them," Lavrov said.

"Today it is clear that, for example, our moratorium on the deployment of short- and medium-range missiles is no longer practically viable and will have to be abandoned. The U.S. has arrogantly ignored the warnings of Russia and China and in practice has moved on to the deployment of weapons of this class in various regions of the world."

Washington withdrew from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty in 2019. Russia has since said it will not deploy such weapons provided that Washington does not.