News In Brief

Soviet Union says it plans to place new Euromissiles

The Soviet Union announced Monday for the first time that it had started preparations to deploy new missiles in East Germany and Czechoslovakia. The Defense Ministry said the new weapons would be deployed in response to the US medium-range cruise and Pershing II missiles due to go into place in Western Europe beginning later this year.

The announcement, carried by the official news agency Tass and Radio Moscow, said Moscow had been compelled to take measures to ensure its security in response to the American missiles. The Soviet missiles were ''directed at maintaining the equilibrium in the nuclear systems between the Warsaw Treaty and NATO in Europe,'' the announcement said. The Defense Ministry did not say what kind of missiles would be deployed.

Meanwhile, Georgi Arbatov, a senior adviser to Soviet leader Yuri Andropov, was quoted Monday as saying the United States planned to use new nuclear missiles in Europe as part of a grand ''first-strike'' plan against the Soviet Union. Mr. Arbatov was interviewed by the West German magazine Der Spiegel.

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