US Violating INF Treaty By Missile Deployment To Romania, Poland: Russia

Russia has accused US of violating the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty by deploying Mark 41 systems capable of launching Tomahawk cruise missiles to Romania and Poland.

According to a report published by the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) Tuesday, the US continues to increase production and use of heavy strike Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), test missile targets under its Ballistic Missile Defense program and also deploy Mark 41 systems capable of launching Tomahawk intermediate-range cruise missiles to Romania and Poland in violation of the INF treaty.

“A relatively new and very serious violation of the INF Treaty by the United States was the deployment in Europe of the Mark 41 (Mk 41 VLS) system capable of launching Tomahawk intermediate-range cruise missiles. These vertical launch systems are being delivered to Romania’s Deveselu Air Base and there are plans to build a similar facility in Poland,” the report stated.

The United States continued to test missile targets under its Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD) programme, possessing characteristics that are similar to intermediate- and shorter-range missiles. In addition, these tests are also used to further improve key elements of missile systems that are prohibited under the INF Treaty.

The United States continued to increase the production and use of heavy strike UAVs, which clearly comply with the INF Treaty definition of ground-launched cruise missiles.

It should be said that we have pointed to above two obvious violations of the INF Treaty by the United States for the past 15 years, but we have not received any constructive response from our American colleagues, it said.