A day after the United States and Germany announced at a NATO summit in Washington that they would deploy long-range missiles in Germany in 2026 to demonstrate their commitment to European defense, Russia declared on Thursday that it would plan “response measures” to counter the “very serious threat” from the Western military alliance.
According to Russian news agency Tass, Sergei Ryabkov, Russia’s deputy foreign minister responsible for US relations, non-proliferation, and arms control, issued the warning, stating, “We will develop a military response to the new threat calmly, with a cool head.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that NATO is now “fully involved in the conflict over Ukraine,” as reported by Russian news agencies.
Peskov commented, “The North Atlantic alliance has once again very clearly confirmed its essence. It is an alliance created in an era of confrontation with the aim of maintaining confrontation.”
He added, “Tensions on the European continent are escalating” as a result.
Peskov further stated, “This obliges us to analyze very deeply the decisions taken in the discussion that took place. This is a very serious threat to the national security of our country. All of this will require us to take thoughtful, coordinated, effective responses to deter NATO, to counteract NATO.”
NATO announced on Wednesday that the “episodic deployments” were in preparation for longer-term stationing, which would include SM-6, Tomahawk cruise missiles, and hypersonic weapons with a longer range than current capabilities in Europe.
The Western military alliance also revealed that a new US air defense base in northern Poland, designed to detect and intercept ballistic missile attacks as part of a broader NATO missile shield, is now mission-ready.
China, criticizing NATO, accused it of seeking security at the expense of others and warned the alliance not to bring the same “chaos” to Asia.
In a statement issued at its summit, NATO said that China has become an enabler of the war through its “no-limits partnership” with Russia and its substantial support for Russia’s defense industrial base.
“NATO hyping up China’s responsibility on the Ukraine issue is unreasonable and has sinister motives,” said China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian at a daily briefing. He insisted that China maintains a fair and objective stance on the Ukraine issue.
