Nations Negotiate Nuclear Arms Cuts

The defense chiefs of the United States, Russia and Ukraine mapped plans Thursday for further arms reductions that will start with destruction of a missile silo.

Sharing a three-way handshake, Defense Secretary William Perry, Russian Defense Minister Pavel Grachev and Ukrainian Defense Minister Valery Shmarov greeted each other, then sat down for talks touching on Bosnia and other issues as well as arms control.

On Friday, the three ministers plan to push a demolition button at the Pervomaysk missile base in Ukraine’s wheat belt and blow up an ICBM silo. The destruction schedule foresees a base free of nuclear weapons by June. The United States expects that all Ukrainian silos will have been destroyed or dismantled by 1998.