MOSCOW, 14 December 2021, (TON): Russia said “it may be forced to deploy intermediate-range nuclear missiles in Europe in response to what it sees as NATO's plans to do the same.”

Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told Russia's news agency in an interview that Moscow would have to take the step if NATO refused to engage with it on preventing such an escalation.

His comments further raised the stakes in an East-West standoff in which Russia is demanding security guarantees from the West while the United States and its allies are warning Moscow to pull back from what they see as a possible invasion of Ukraine - something Ryabkov again denied was Russia's intent.

Intermediate-range nuclear forces (INF) in Europe were banned under a 1987 treaty agreed between Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and US President Ronald Reagan in what was hailed at the time as a major easing of Cold War tensions.

Washington quit the pact in 2019 after complaining for years of alleged Russian violations.

Ryabkov said “there were indirect indications that NATO was moving closer to re-deploying INF, including its restoration last month of the 56th Artillery Command which operated nuclear-capable Pershing missiles during the Cold War.