| Russia recklessly fired an intermediate-range ballistic missile at Ukraine in response to the US and UK, allowing Kyiv to use their missiles to strike further into Russian territory. Can the Euromissile crisis of 1976-1988 hold the key to understanding Putin escalating the war? The song remains the same. By deploying the medium-range strategic SS-20 missile in 1976, the USSR sought to intimidate the Europeans, erode NATO cohesion, and perhaps lead to 'decoupling' Europe from the US nuclear deterrent. By launching an experimental ‘Oreshnik’ missile on Dnipro on 21 November, Putin had the same idea, with the bonus of terrifying the Ukrainians. He also likely thought decoupling Europe from the US nuclear deterrent would be easier following Donald Trump's win in the recent presidential elections. The ‘Oreshnik’ (hazel tree) missile is an intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM), a class of weapons prohibited under a 1988 treaty that ended the Euromissile crisis. Coincidentally, Donald Trump ended the Intermediate Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty during his first term in 2019. Nuclear deterrence is historically based on both the USA and the USSR/Russia possessing arsenals of intercontinental ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads capable of mutual assured destruction (MAD). The hope with MAD is that this prospect is undesirable and disastrous enough to prevent nuclear strikes. Euromissiles were a game changer. In March 1976, the Soviet Union began deploying a new missile, the SS-20, that upset the balance of power in Europe. It was one of the pivotal events of the Cold War. The multiple-warhead SS-20 had a range of 5,000 km – just short of the 5,500 that would have made it subject to SALT treaty arms control – and could hit any point in Western Europe from launch sites in the Soviet Union. It was more accurate than the older missiles, and it was also mobile and easily concealed. | 