Trump pushing world towards another Cuban missile crisis after withdrawing US from arms control treaty, Russian MP says

'Back then we were lucky to avoid an exchange of nuclear strikes, and only God knows what all this may end up in now'

Donald Trump‘s administration is pushing the world towards another Cuban missile crisis by withdrawing from a major Cold-War era nuclear treaty, a Russian MP has said.

The US president announced Washington would withdraw from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, which eliminated short- and intermediate-range nuclear and conventional missiles, after accusing Russia of violating the pact.

“Russia has not, unfortunately, honoured the agreement so we’re going to terminate the agreement and we’re going to pull out,” Mr Trump told reporters on Saturday after a rally in Nevada.

Alexei Pushkov, a Russian MP in the upper parliament house, said “we will find ourselves at ground zero” after pulling out of the agreement, “at a point that led to the Cuban missile crisis”.

He told the Russian news agency TASS: ”The danger is that the United States is pushing the world to another Cuban missile crisis.

“Back then we were lucky to avoid an exchange of nuclear strikes, and only God knows what all this may end up in now.”

Russia’s deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, said a unilateral withdrawal by the United States would be ”very dangerous” and lead to a “military-technical” retaliation.

Mikhail Gorbachev, the former leader of the Soviet Union who negotiated the treaty with Ronald Reagan in 1987, said it would be a mistake for Washington to pull out of the treaty.

“Do they really not understand in Washington what this could lead to?” Mr Gorbachev, now 87, said, according to the Interfax news agency.

US authorities believe Moscow is developing and has deployed a ground-launched system in breach of the INF treaty which could allow it to launch a nuclear strike on Europe at short notice. Russia has consistently denied any such violation.

Mr Trump said the US will develop the weapons unless Russia and China agree to halt development. China is not a party to the treaty.

Britain’s secretary of state for defence said the UK stands “absolutely resolute” with the US.

Gavin Williamson blamed Russia for endangering the treaty and said Moscow had made a “mockery” of the agreement.

“Our close and long-term ally of course is the United States, and we will be absolutely resolute with the United States in hammering home a clear message that Russia needs to respect the treaty obligation that it signed,” he told the Financial Times.

“We of course want to see this treaty continue to stand but it does require two parties to be committed to it and at the moment you have one party that is ignoring it,” Mr Williamson added.

“It is Russia that is in breach and it is Russia that needs to get its house in order.”