Moscow: The United States plans to carry out test launches of two new medium-range missiles that were previously banned by the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty before the end of this year, Russian Strategic Missile Forces commander Col. Gen. Sergei Karakaev said on Sunday.
“Before the end of 2019, the United States plans to test two new intermediate-range land-based missiles: a cruise missile with a range of more than 1,000 kilometres (621 miles) and another one with a range of over 3,000 kilometres (1,864 miles). In addition, strike drones can be classified as short and intermediate-range strike weapons. Moreover, no one today can provide guarantees that these complexes would not be equipped with nuclear weapons,” Karakaev said.
The INF Treaty was signed by the United States and the Soviet Union in 1987. It was terminated on August 2,2019 at the US’ initiative after it formally suspended its INF obligations six months earlier.
Both the countries have accused each other of violating the 1987 agreement, which banned any ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges of 500 to 5,500 kilometres.
