Russia vows of response, angered by US plan to deploy long-range missiles in Germany

Russia has threatened to take militarymeasures to counter NATO after it was announced that the United States will be deploying long-range fire missiles in Germany for the first time since the 1980s.

Moscow accused Washington of escalating the already volatile equations while issuing a stark warning to Berlin.

“Beyond any doubt, our military has already taken note of this statement,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told reporters in St. Petersburg.

“I think that it is just a component of the escalation policy, one of the elements of intimidation, which today is almost the main part of the Russia policy pursued by NATO and the US," he added.

The Kremlin added on Thursday (Jul 11) that it had "taken note" of decisions made by the Western leaders at this week's NATO Summit in Washington, including plans to "createseparate logistics hubs in Black Sea cities” and establish “additional facilities in Europe".

“This poses a very serious threat to our national security. All of this will necessitate thoughtful, coordinated and effective responses from us to counter-deter NATO,” presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in a conference call with reporters.

US downplays Russia's threats

Quizzed about the statement by Moscow, US national security adviser Jake Sullivan appeared to playdown the threat.

“What we are deploying to Germany is a defence capability like many other defensive capabilities we’ve deployed across the alliance across the decades,” Sullivan said.

“So more Russian sabre-rattling obviously is not going to deter us from doing what we think is necessary to keep the alliance as strong as possible.”

What did the US announce?

For the first time since the Cold War, the US announced its plans to station long-range missiles in Germany on Wednesday (Jul 10). The plan includes the deployment ofnon-nuclear Tomahawk cruise, SM-6 and hypersonic missiles in Germany, starting in 2026.

The decision was welcomed by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz who said it“fitted exactly” into his government’s security strategy. He added that the decision had been long in the making and would come as “no surprise” to anyone who was knowledgeable about security and peace policies.

Notably, it was in 2019 that the US withdrew from the Intermediate-RangeNuclear Forces (INF) Treaty signed bySoviet Union's Mikhail Gorbachev and former US President Ronald Reagan in 1987. The treaty banned placing nuclear and conventional missiles with ranges from 500 to 5,500 kilometresand removed more than 2,600 weapons from the continent.

(With inputs from agencies)