Vladimir Putin warned the United States against deploying missiles in Europe or Russia would retaliate during his State of the Nation address Wednesday.
Putin said the threat of U.S. missiles in Europe is “very serious” and Russia “will have to respond,” according to a report from the Associated Press.
Putin’s speech comes after Donald Trump declared that the United States would be leaving the International Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty. (RELATED: Report: Trump Preparing To Ditch Nuke Treaty That Russia Has Violated Repeatedly)
Russia is not an enemy of the US, but it will not be banging on a locked door – Putin
READ MORE: https://t.co/p6ltpVS42T pic.twitter.com/fVSLbsa9jU
— RT (@RT_com) February 21, 2019
Putin blamed the United States for the deteriorating world tensions between the two powers.
“How are we evaluating the situation in this context? I have already said this and I want to repeat: Russia does not intend — this is very important, I am repeating this on purpose — Russia does not intend to deploy such missiles in Europe first,” Putin said.
The United States already stations missiles in Poland and Romania.
Putin said that the reason he mentioned the potential threat of U.S. missiles in his speech was “so that no one can blame [the Russian government] later.”
While Russia has missiles deployed in Crimea, Putin also announced new missiles that “are capable of destroying command centers on the United States territory in five minutes,” according to a report.
This missile, the Tsircon, will be used by Russia to hit either United States command centers in either Europe or on the American continent.
Putin also mentioned Russias operations in Syria and how much Russian fighting forces had learned on the ground.