In a statement issued today, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova sharply warned that provocative plans by the U.S. and the U.K. to jointly deploy short- and medium-range land-based missiles—weapons previously prohibited by the now-defunct Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty—will make it increasingly difficult “to prevent possible serious escalation [and] definitely reducing the area of a political and diplomatic solution to the post-INF problem and for preventing a serious escalation in the missile sphere.”
As the Pentagon has openly stated, she said, the U.S. has been working on developing a broad range of such weapons, including hypersonic missile systems, to be deployed in the Asia-Pacific and in Europe. The purpose of those deployed in Europe will be to render air defense systems ineffective and—in the Pentagon’s own words—"to punch a hole in the anti-access and area denial systems in conditions of a conflict with Russia.” The United Kingdom’s military has joined in these “openly hostile and destabilizing statements,” Zakharova went on, cautioning “we have taken note of the Anglo-Saxon military commanders’ focus on targeting purely defensive systems that are protecting Russia from potential armed attacks.”
