Berlin ‘Will Not be Intimidated’ by Moscow’s Nuclear Threats, Says German Foreign Minister

Germany said on Monday it “will not be intimidated” by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s threats to deploy “medium and shorter-range strike weapons” in response to Washington’s intention to deploy missiles to Europe.

“We will not be intimidated by such statements,” foreign ministry spokesman Sebastian Fischer told a government press conference, as reported by AFP.

On July 10, Washington said it would “begin episodic deployments of the long-range fires capabilities of its Multi-Domain Task Force in Germany in 2026,” which would include SM-6, Tomahawk, and developmental hypersonic weapons with “significantly longer range than current land-based fires in Europe.”

Sergei Ryabkov, Russia’s deputy foreign minister, responded on July 18 by saying that Russia “does not rule out” deploying “nuclear-armed missiles,” with Putin reiterating the stance on Sunday, July 28, during Russia’s Navy Day.

“If the United States of America implements such plans, we will consider ourselves free from the unilateral moratorium on the deployment of medium and shorter-range strike weapons, including increasing the capabilities of the coastal forces of our Navy,” said Putin while addressing sailors from Russia, China, Algeria and India.

“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.

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“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,” he added.

Putin also likened the ongoing developments to the height of the Cold War, which saw the US deploying the nuclear-capable Pershing II missiles in West Germany in 1983.

While Dmitry Medvedev, Russia’s former prime minister and now deputy chairman of the Security Council, has been threatening the West with nuclear strikes on numerous occasions since the 2022 Ukraine invasion began, the latest posturing marked a new height in nuclear tensions after Russia deployed nuclear weapons to Belarus in 2022.