The United States recently announced its withdrawal from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, citing ongoing Russian violations. This raised alarm among arms control experts and many European states, which see the INF as a crucial element of European security.

The INF eliminated an entire class of missiles, prompting concerns about the adverse consequences of redeployments of INF-banned missiles to Europe by NATO and Russia.

But there’s another problem — more than a bilateral arrangement, the treaty also curtailed missile programs in former Soviet states, including Ukraine. The death of the INF could unshackle Ukraine’s missile program, too. Here’s what you need to know.

The U.S.S.R. and the United States signed the INF in 1987 to prohibit ground-launched missiles with ranges between 300 and 3,400 miles (500 and 5,000 kilometers). By 1990, the two countries had verifiably destroyed some 2,700 intermediate-range missiles. After the collapse of the U.S.S.R. in 1991, Soviet obligations under the INF were multilateralized among all its recognized successors.

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www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/02/26/without-inf-treaty-europe-could-see-new-missile-power-spoiler-its-not-russia/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.0c79ee1e69f9