AFP, Moscow: Russia will dismantle a unit of strategic missiles based in the Urals by next December, in accordance with the 1991 START 1 disarmament accord, the ITAR-TASS news agency reported late Thursday.
The unit, based in the Chelyabinsk region, is made up of RS-20 intercontinental ballistic missiles — which NATO calls SS-18.
Military authorities blew up a launching silo of that unit on Thursday, the fifth one to be destroyed since the beginning of this year.
Another silo will be blown up by year's end, ITAR-TASS reported, quoting an unidentified defense ministry official.
Under the START 1 agreement, which came into force in December 1994, the number of Russian and US missiles cannot exceed 1,600.
Russia currently has two divisions equipped with over 80 RS-20 missiles, in Siberia's Krasnoyarsk region, and in the southern Orenburg region.
