MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russia no longer considers itself bound by a moratorium on the deployment of short- and medium-range missiles, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Monday.
The U.S. withdrew from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty in 2019. Russia has said since then it would not deploy such weapons provided that Washington did not do so. However, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov signalled last December that Moscow would have to respond to what he called "destabilising actions" by the U.S. and NATO in the strategic sphere.
"Since the situation is developing towards the actual deployment of U.S.-made land-based medium- and short-range missiles in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region, the Russian Foreign Ministry notes that the conditions for maintaining a unilateral moratorium on the deployment of similar weapons have disappeared," the ministry said in its statement.
(Reporting by ReutersEditing by Gareth Jones)
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