Putin warns US of Cold War-style crisis if missiles deployed to Germany

Russian leader threatens to relaunch production of intermediate-range nuclear weapons if the United States deploys missiles to Germany.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned the United States against deploying long-range missiles in Germany, saying Russia, in that case, would restart production of intermediate-range nuclear weapons and station similar missiles within striking distance of the West.

The US on July 10 said it would start deploying long-range missiles in Germany from 2026 as part of a longer-term militarisation that will include SM-6, Tomahawk cruise missiles and developmental hypersonic weapons.

In a speech to sailors from Russia, China, Algeria and India to mark the Russian Navy Day in the former imperial capital of St Petersburg, Putin on Sunday said the US risked triggering a Cold War-style missile crisis with the move.

“The flight time to targets on our territory of such missiles, which in the future may be equipped with nuclear warheads, will be about 10 minutes,” Putin said.

“We will take mirror measures to deploy, taking into account the actions of the United States, its satellites in Europe and in other regions of the world.”

Such missiles, which can travel between 500 and 5,500km (310-3,420 miles), were the subject of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty signed by the US and the Soviet Union in 1987. But both Washington and Moscow withdrew from the arms control treaty in 2019, each accusing the other of violations.

Putin, who sent his army into Ukraine in 2022, casts the war as part of a historic struggle with the West, which he says humiliated Russia after the Soviet Union fell in 1991 by encroaching on what he considers Moscow’s sphere of influence.

Ukraine and the West say Putin is engaged in an imperial-style landgrab. They have pledged to defeat Russia, which currently controls about 18 percent of Ukraine, including Crimea, and parts of four regions in eastern Ukraine.

Russia says the lands, once part of the Russian empire, are now again part of Russia and that they will never be given back.

‘Direct confrontation’

Russian and US diplomats say relations are worse than even during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. While both the powers urge de-escalation, they are also accused of taking steps towards escalation.

Putin said the US had transferred Typhon missile systems to Denmark and the Philippines, and compared the US plans to the NATO decision to deploy Pershing II launchers in Western Europe in 1979.

The Soviet leadership, including General Secretary Yuri Andropov, feared Pershing II deployments were part of an elaborate US-led plan to decapitate the Soviet Union by taking out its political and military leadership.

“This situation is reminiscent of the events of the Cold War related to the deployment of American medium-range Pershing missiles in Europe,” Putin said.

The US deployed US Pershing ballistic missiles in West Germany in the 1980s at the height of the Cold War. US missiles continued to be stationed through the reunification of Germany and into the 1990s.

But following the end of the Cold War, the US significantly reduced the number of missiles stationed in Europe as the threat from Moscow receded.

The Kremlin had already warned in mid-July that the proposed US deployment would mean that European capitals would become a target for Russian missiles.

“We are taking steady steps towards the Cold War. All the attributes of the Cold War with the direct confrontation are returning,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a state TV reporter.