MOSCOW, October 28. /TASS/. The appearance of medium-range and shorter-range missile in Europe is the primary hazard of the collapse of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty. Russia will have to take additional measures, if such weapons are deployed to Europe, Russian Ambassador to the US Anatoly Antonov told the Bolshaya Igra (Big Game) TV program on Russia’s Channel One on Sunday.

"The most dangerous moment regarding medium-and shorter-range missiles is the appearance of this type of missiles in European countries. We can actually return to the situation before that well-known treaty was signed in the late 1980s. That will be a completely new regional and strategic situation, which will require additional actions from us. That’s why a moratorium on deploying medium-and shorter-range missiles anywhere in the world is so important today," he said.

The diplomat recalled that the INF Treaty "concerns primarily the security of US allies and the United States itself." "What we observe today in the arms control system is the destruction of everything that has been achieved by the USSR, the United States and then Russia over the past 50 years," Antonov added.

On August 2, 2019, the United States formally withdrew from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, signed by the Soviet Union and the United States on December 8, 1987. It applied to deployed and non-deployed ground-based missiles of intermediate range (1,000-5,000 kilometers) and shorter range (500-1,000 kilometers). The US motivated its actions by Russia’s alleged refusal to comply with Washington's ultimatum-like demand that the new 9M729 cruise missiles be eliminated as violating the INF Treaty. Moscow vehemently dismissed all accusations, saying that the technical parameters of the 9M729 missiles are within the parameters allowed by the treaty.

On October 22, Russia’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN Office in Geneva Andrei Belousov said at a meeting of the First Committee of the UN General Assembly that Moscow was ready to impose a unilateral moratorium on the deployment of intermediate-and shorter-range missiles until such US-made weapons began to appear in the relevant regions. He also called on the US and its allies to take similar steps.