Moscow: Russia announced on Monday that it has abandoned the moratorium on the deployment of land-based intermediate- and short-range missiles.

According to Anadolu Agency, a statement from the Russian Foreign Ministry declared that the decision was made after the conditions for maintaining a unilateral moratorium on the deployment of such weapons disappeared, effectively lifting the self-imposed restrictions.

The statement highlighted that the United States and NATO allies had not responded to Russia's efforts to restrict missile deployment. It pointed to the movement of missile launch platforms to Europe, the Philippines, and Australia as posing a direct threat to Russian security.

Russia stated that it would withdraw from the moratorium to maintain strategic balance and address this new threat.

The moratorium was initially based on the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, an agreement signed between the United States and the former USSR in 1987. This treaty banned all of the two nations' nuclear and conventional ground-launched ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and missile launchers with specific ranges.

US President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the treaty in 2019, citing alleged Russian non-compliance. Russia denied these allegations and stated it would not deploy such weapons as long as Washington, DC, refrained from doing so.