Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told Rossiya Segodnya this morning that the successful testing of the hypersonic Oreshnik missile last month represented Russia’s response to the U.S. deployment of its mid-range rockets to Europe. Lavrov pointed out that following the unilateral U.S. withdrawal from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty in 2019, Moscow continued to abide by the key limits set by the Cold War-era accord. However, “Today, for example, it is clear that our moratorium on deploying intermediate- and shorter-range missiles has all but lost its relevance, which means that we would have to terminate it.
He went on: “The United States has arrogantly ignored Russia’s and China’s warnings and started to deploy these weapons in various regions across the world. President Vladimir Putin has made it clear that Russia will respond to these developments accordingly. Recently, we tested the Oreshnik hypersonic intermediate-range missile in combat conditions, which served as a convincing demonstration of our capabilities and resolve in terms of the actions we can take in response.”
Considering what he called Washington’s “extremely anti-Russian” stance, Lavrov said that Moscow doesn’t intend to re-engage in an arms control dialogue with Washington. “As for the New START, let me remind you that at the time of suspending this agreement, we said that Russia intended to comply with its main limits throughout the treaty’s life cycle and warned the United States against taking any steps which would make these efforts on our behalf irrelevant. We have been consistent in following this vision by making sure that the process of upgrading Russia’s strategic nuclear forces complies with the limits as set forth in the New START, while also keeping a close eye on Washington’s actions.”
