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By Mandy Taheri
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Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday said the country needs to start producing short- and intermediate-range missiles and then decide where to put them.
Addressing Russia's national security council, Putin said: "We need to start production of these strike systems and then, based on the actual situation, make decisions about where—if necessary to ensure our safety—to place them," according to The Associated Press.
Under the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty signed by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and U.S. President Ronald Reagan in 1988, missiles with a range of 310 to 3,410 miles were banned. In 2019, the U.S. withdrew from the treaty, claiming Russian violations. Putin has denied the allegation.
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A State Department spokesperson told Newsweek in an email, that following the INF treaty's demise, "the Department of Defense (DOD) is developing and deploying conventional capabilities that would previously have been prohibited."
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The treaty, which recognized that "nuclear war would have devastating consequences for all mankind," required the parties to "eliminate all its intermediate-range missiles and launchers of such missiles."
The Cold War-era rivals are the world's largest nuclear powers, with a 2024 estimate by the Federation of American Scientists placing Russia's nuclear warhead count at 5,580 and the U.S. at 5,044.
"Today it is known that the United States not only produces these missile systems, but has already brought them to Europe for exercises, to Denmark," Putin said. "Quite recently it was announced that they are in the Philippines," according to the AP. Earlier this year, the U.S. shipped its midrange Typhon missile system to the Philippines.
A State Department spokesperson told Newsweek in an email, "U.S. temporary missile deployments are responsive to growing threats and intended to maintain force readiness and preserve regional security and stability. These U.S. systems are designed to be strictly conventionally armed and not designed to employ nuclear payloads."
Responding to Putin's move, a State Department spokesperson said, "Russia could have discussed missiles and other security matters with the United States through the Strategic Stability Dialogue but it chose war against Ukraine instead."
Newsweek reached out to the Russian government for comment via email on Friday.
Tensions between Moscow and Washington have risen since Putin's invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022. The U.S. is a close ally of Ukraine, and since the 2022 invasion, Congress has passed five bills totaling $175 billion in aid to Kyiv, according to the Council on Foreign Relations. Much of the aid is for military support—weapons, training and intelligence.
Russia "has produced and deployed multiple battalions of the 9M729 ground-launched cruise missile and acquired ground-launched ballistic missiles with ranges up to 900km from the DPRK [North Korea] that it has fired into Ukraine," a State Department spokesperson told Newsweek.
On Tuesday, former Russian President and close Putin ally Dmitry Medvedev warned the U.S. and the European Union (EU) that "there will be hell to pay" for the 14th round of sanctions against Russia. International sanctions have been levied against Moscow and political figures following Putin's 2014 annexation of Crimea, with additional rounds implemented since February 2022.
Earlier this month, Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un signed a treaty pledging mutual military assistance in the event of an attack. According to the treaty text published by North Korean state media, the pact says that in the event of an invasion of Russia or North Korea, the other party "shall provide military and other assistance with all means in its possession without delay."
Updated 6/28/24 at 4:38 p.m. ET: This article was updated to include comment from the State Department.
Correction 6/29/24 at 10:29 a.m. ET: This article was updated with a correction from the State Department regarding a quote.
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