Moscow deploys secret cruise missile

RUSSIA has covertly deployed a new cruise missile to a military base in a violation of a 20-year-old arms control treaty, US officials have claimed.

The claims emerged as it was announced that multiple Russian aircraft came within an “unsafe” distance of a US destroyer in the Black Sea and a Russian spy plane was spotted off the US east coast.

Barack Obama, the former US president, wrote to Vladimir Putin after Russia tested a cruise missile in 2014, contending that the test violated the landmark 1987 accord that banned the US and Soviet Union from using intermediate and shorter-range missiles and helped bring the Cold War to a close.

The Russians appear to have disregarded the warning, and the missile has now been deployed according to the New York Times.

Administration officials said Russia has one battalion of the missile at a test site in south-eastern Russia, while a second has been moved to an operational base. A spokesman for US European Command also raised the alarm yesterday over a series of incidents on Feb 10 in which Russian aircraft flew near the USS Porter destroyer.

“Such incidents are concerning because they can result in accident or miscalculation,” Captian Danny Hernandez, the spokesman, said. Donald Trump will now be under pressure to respond to Russia’s provocations.