The Kremlin has said it is no longer bound by any constraints on deploying short- and intermediate-range missiles near European Union and Nato states, as nuclear sabre-rattling escalated before a US deadline for Moscow to halt fighting with Ukraine.
US president Donald Trump has threatened to impose “severe” tariffs on imports from Russia and from countries – including China and India – that buy Moscow’s oil, unless the Kremlin agrees to a ceasefire by Friday.
Envoys for Mr Trump are expected in Moscow and Kyiv this week – Russian state media say Steve Witkoff will arrive on Wednesday, and Keith Kellogg is set to visit Ukraine – amid sharpening rhetoric between the White House and the Kremlin.
After former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev warned that Mr Trump’s “ultimatum game” was stoking the risk of war between their countries, the US leader said last Friday that he was moving two nuclear-powered submarines to “appropriate regions, just in case these foolish and inflammatory statements are more than just that”.
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On the same day, Russia said it had started regular production of a new nuclear-capable, intermediate-range ballistic missile called Oreshnik, and would deploy it this year in neighbouring Belarus, which borders Ukraine and EU and Nato members Poland, Lithuania and Latvia.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed on Tuesday that Moscow now felt free to deploy short- and mid-range missiles wherever it liked, in response to what it claims are US plans to deploy such missiles in areas of Europe and Asia that would threaten Russia.
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“Russia no longer has any constraints in this regard. Russia no longer considers itself to be limited in any way. Russia considers itself to have the right, if necessary, to take appropriate measures,” he said.
During Mr Trump’s first term as president in 2019, the US withdrew from the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF), which banned missiles with a range of 500-5,500km. Russia denied US claims at the time that it was secretly developing such weapons, but said it would not deploy anything that had been banned under the INF for as long as the US and its allies did the same.
“Our repeated warnings on this account have been ignored, and US-made ground-based INF systems are being deployed in Europe and the Asia-Pacific,” the Russian foreign ministry said on Monday. “In this regard, [Russia] states that the conditions for maintaining a unilateral moratorium on the deployment of similar systems have ceased to exist. We are authorised to declare that the Russian Federation no longer considers itself bound by the previously adopted self-imposed restrictions.”
Moscow claimed that some versions of the US-made Himars rocket system – which Ukraine uses to powerful effect against Russia’s invasion force – could fire further than 500km and so fall “into the category of ground-launched INF-range missile systems”.
Mr Trump reiterated on Tuesday that he would raise tariffs on India “very substantially” due to what he considers to be New Delhi’s unfair trade rules and because it is “fuelling the war machine” by buying Russian oil.
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He also claimed that lower world energy prices would force Russian president Vladimir Putin to end his invasion of Ukraine.
“If energy goes down enough, Putin is going to stop killing people,” Mr Trump told US television. “If you get energy down, another $10 a barrel, he’s going to have no choice because his economy stinks.”
Mr Peskov said US threats to impose financial penalties on Russia’s trading partners were “illegal”.
Sweden, Norway and Denmark announced that they would contribute about $500 million (€433 million) to a new plan for Nato members in Europe to buy US arms for Ukraine. The Netherlands said on Monday it would put €500 million into the scheme.
