The Russian government on Saturday officially authorised the Defence Ministry to terminate a series of bilateral military cooperation agreements signed with several European nations between 1992 and 2002.
The termination list includes agreements with Germany, Poland, and Norway, as well as similar pacts with Bulgaria, Romania, Denmark, the UK, the Netherlands, Croatia, Belgium and the Czech Republic.
The order was published on the government’s official legal portal, formalising the end of post‑Cold War military‑diplomatic frameworks amid current geopolitical tensions.
Russia’s relations with European defence and security frameworks have been fracturing since its full-scale war on Ukraine in February 2022.
In 2023, it drew backlash for formally withdrawing from the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE), a landmark security treaty which limited key categories of conventional military equipment that NATO and the then-Warsaw Pact could deploy.
At the time, Moscow blamed the United States for undermining post-Cold War security with the enlargement of the NATO military alliance.
The latest announcement comes ahead of weekend talks in Florida, following Russian President Vladimir Putin’s vow to press ahead with his military offensive in Ukraine nearly four years into his war.
Trump's envoys have pushed a plan in which the United States would offer security guarantees to Ukraine, but Kiev will likely be expected to surrender some territory, a prospect resented by many Ukrainians.
Putin initiated a full-scale war on Ukraine in February 2022, describing it as a "special military operation" to demilitarise the country and prevent the expansion of NATO.
Kiev and its European allies say the war, the largest and deadliest on European soil since World War II, is an unprovoked and illegal land grab that has resulted in a tidal wave of violence and destruction.
