Kremlin warns over US nuclear treaty withdrawal

The U.S. intention to withdraw from a nuclear arms treaty with Russia is making the world a "more dangerous" place, a Russian presidential aide said Monday.

On Sunday, U.S. President Donald Trump said he would pull out from the cold-war era treaty with Russia, the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty, which barred the two sides from deploying nuclear missiles in Europe for three decades.

"Breaking the INF treaty terms forces Russia to ensure its own security. Breaking the INF Treaty means that the U.S. directly starts to develop the systems prohibited by the agreement. (...) Such steps, if taken in reality, will make the world more dangerous," presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a daily news briefing.

"We'll have to develop those weapons. We're going to terminate the agreement and we're going to pull out," Trump told reporters in Nevada.

Separately, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Monday that Washington has yet to initiate the legal procedure for withdrawal from the treaty.

He said the U.S. must officially notify Russia that it is pulling out, adding that the Kremlin is also waiting for "explanations" from the U.S. side.

The treaty was signed in 1987 by Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan.