Russia vows ‘military response’ to US missile deployment plans 

Moscow views Washington’s move as a method of intimidation, its Deputy Foreign Minister has said

Russia will calmly prepare a military response to US plans to station long-range missiles in Germany, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said on Thursday.

Washington announced plans on Wednesday to start deploying long-range weapons in Germany in 2026, including SM-6 and Tomahawk systems, “as part of planning for enduring stationing of these capabilities in the future.”

The latest American plans are just another escalation of tensions by the West and “one of the elements of intimidation, which today is almost the main component of the NATO and US” approach towards Russia, Ryabkov said.

Land-based missiles with a range between 500km and 5,500km were banned on European soil under the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty, signed by Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev in 1987. In 2019, the US pulled out of the Cold War-era pact, accusing Moscow of having violated it.

Ryabkov said deploying US missiles to Germany is primarily aimed at damaging Russia’s security.

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“Without nerves, without emotions, we will develop, first of all, a military response to this new game,” the diplomat said, adding that the Russian military had already “taken this message to task.”

The weapons systems to be deployed in Germany will include the SM-6 anti-air missile, which has a range of up to 460km, and the Tomahawk cruise missile, which can reportedly strike targets more than 2,500km away.

Berlin and Washington released a joint statement announcing the plan following talks at NATO’s annual summit in Washington.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that Moscow would respond in kind to Washington’s deployment of intermediate and shorter-range missiles. In June, the president said that Russia might resume production of previously banned missile systems, citing the “hostile actions” of the US.