The United States will end the Cold War and Cold War Treaty on Nuclear Weapons with Russia, says Trump: NPR

President Trump said the United States would withdraw from a decades-old treaty with Russia, which was suppressing a class of nuclear weapons after accusing Russia of violating the treaty.

"We are the ones who remained in agreement and we respected the agreement, but Russia unfortunately did not respect the agreement," Trump told the press in Nevada, "So we will end the agreement, we are going to withdraw."

Signed by President Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in 1987, the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty prohibited the United States and the Soviet Union from having "ballistic missiles and cruises launched from the ground up. from a range of 500 to 5,500 km, "and demanded the destruction of missiles, launchers and" supporting structures and associated support equipment, "according to the state department.

The two countries eliminated 2,692 missiles after the "entry into force" of the treaty in 1988, the agency said.

For several years, US authorities have accused Russia of violating the agreement.

General Paul Selva, Vice President of the Joint Chiefs, told Congress in March 2017 that military officials "believe that the Russians have deployed a land cruise missile that violates the spirit and intent of the treaty. ".

The Obama administration said that Russia had violated the INF treaty in 2014 by testing a ground cruise missile. But the Obama administration "chose not to leave the deal because of objections from Europeans – especially from Germany – and for fear of a resumption of the arms race" said the New York Times.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told the state-run Tass that the withdrawal of the treaty would be "a very dangerous step, which, I am sure, will not be understood by the international community, but will provoke a serious condemnation of all. " members of the global community who are committed to security and stability and are ready to work towards strengthening the current arms control regimes. "

In the 1960s, the United States had more than 30,000 nuclear warheads, about 22,000 in 1989 and about 4,480 last year – of which 1,740 were deployed, reported Philip Ewing, of NPR.

The end of the INF Treaty "could be catastrophic" for the new START treaty, as NPR's David Welna pointed out in connection with the grand arms reduction agreement with Russia, signed in 2010. The new START treaty provides for a limit of 1,550 nuclear warheads for intercontinental aircraft deployed ballistic missiles for each country.

Trump National Security Advisor John Bolton will travel to Moscow this week and reportedly told Russian President Vladimir Putin that the United States was considering leaving the treaty.