Russia is not ruling out new nuclear missile development in response to US plans to install long-range conventional weapons in Germany, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said today.

According to the Interfax news agency, Ryabkov said protecting Russia’s Kaliningrad region, which lies between Poland and Lithuania, both NATO members, is a particular focus.

“I don’t rule out any option,” he told reporters in Moscow when asked to comment on the US plans.

The United States said last week that they would begin developing in Germany from 2026 weapons that would include SM-6, Tomahawk and new hypersonic missiles in order to demonstrate their commitment to the defense of NATO and Europe.

The Russian president Vladimir Putin said last month that Moscow would resume production of short- and medium-range ground-launched missiles and decide where to deploy them if needed. Most of Russia’s missile systems are capable of carrying both conventional and nuclear warheads.

According to Interfax, Ryabkov said that Russia will choose from the widest possible array of options the most effective response to the US move, taking into account, among other things, costs.

He said Kaliningrad, the westernmost part of Russia that is cut off from the rest of Russian territory, “has long attracted the unhealthy attention of our adversaries.”

“Kaliningrad is no exception in terms of our 100% determination to do whatever it takes to push back those who may have aggressive plans and who are trying to provoke us into taking certain steps that are undesirable to all and fraught with further complications.” , Ryabkov said.

The missiles which Russia and the United States they are considering developing are medium-range ground-launched weapons that were banned under a 1987 US-Soviet treaty. The US withdrew from the treaty in 2019, accusing Russia of violations, which Moscow denies.

Security experts say the planned weapons deployment is part of an arms race that adds to an already complex array of threats at a time of heightened tensions over war in Ukraine.

A Russian deployment of nuclear missiles in Kaliningrad would send a strong signal to the West due to its close proximity to NATO countries.

But Andrei Baklitsky, an arms control expert at the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research, said Russian missile launchers in Kaliningrad would likely be visible “at any time” to NATO intelligence and surveillance services, so the deployment to them it would be like “fake”.

In a phone interview earlier this week, he said Russia could also deploy missiles in the Moscow or Leningrad regions, or in Chukotka in the Russian far east, from where they could target Alaska or even California.