Soviets to Dismantle SS-12 Missiles Before Treaty Vote

Moscow will begin dismantling its SS-12 medium-range nuclear missiles based in East Germany and Czechoslovakia within the next week, ahead of schedule and before U.S. Senate ratification of a treaty that mandates their elimination, Soviet Defense Minister Dmitri T. Yazov said today.

Speaking at a Kremlin reception to mark Tuesday’s 70th anniversary of the Soviet army, Yazov said the missiles will be dismantled and withdrawn from the two countries but will not be fully destroyed until the U.S. Senate ratifies the Intermediate Nuclear Forces agreement.

The treaty was signed by President Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev during their Washington summit in December.

“In a display of good will and its striving to implement the provisions of the INF treaty, the Soviet Union is beginning late in February to withdraw from the territory of the GDR and Czechoslovakia missile units armed with OTR-22 (the Soviet designation for the SS-12) missiles which were brought there in response to the deployment of American Pershing 2 and cruise missiles in some West European countries,” Yazov said.

“The Soviet missiles and launchers that are going to be withdrawn will be sent immediately to the sites where it is planned to liquidate them after ratification of the treaty,” Yazov said.

The defense minister did not give the exact number of missiles to be withdrawn in each country.

Last week East German newspapers ran photographs of Soviet SS-12 missiles being dismantled and packed for shipment back to destruction sites in the Soviet Union.

No mention was made of the more numerous and longer-range SS-20s, which are all located at sites inside the Soviet Union, being taken apart early.