Putin: Russia will target countries hosting US intermediate-range missiles

If the United States deploys intermediate-range missiles in Europe, Russia will have to target the countries that might host them, Russian president Vladimir Putin warned on October 24, Associated Press reported. The statement comes as US president Donald Trump said this past weekend that the United States will withdraw from a nuclear arms treaty with Russia signed in 1987. The Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces treaty (INF) banned ground-launch nuclear missiles with ranges from 500 km to 5,500 km. Putin said he hoped the United States would not follow through with placing intermediate-range missiles in Europe. He called such a move a repeat of a Cold War crisis in the 1980s, when both countries deployed intermediate-range missiles in Europe. The European nations that agree to host such missiles need to understand that they expose their territories to possible attacks as a retaliatory strike, Putin said. He said he did not understand why Europe should be put “in such grave danger.” While rejecting the US president’s claim that Russia breached the INF treaty, Putin said that the US missile defense facilities in Romania hold “intermediate-range cruise missiles with just a tweak in computer software.” Russia warns that missile shield in Romania may break nuclear treaty with U.S. Putin says Russia must react to antiballistic systems in neighboring countries editor@romania-insider.com