Vladimir Putin has said that Russia is militarily ready for a Cuban Missile-style crisis - if Donald Trump is is 'foolish' enough to want one - and that his missiles could reach the US faster that theirs could hit Moscow. The 35-year-old pilot of the downed plane, Major Rudolf Anderson, is considered the sole U.S. combat casualty of the Cuban missile crisis. On October 26, 1962, Khrushchev sent a message to Kennedy in which he offered to remove the Cuban missiles in exchange for a promise by U.S. leaders not to invade Cuba. Relations between Moscow and Washington were strained, he added, but the tensions were not comparable to those of the Cuban Missile Crisis. 'They (the tensions) are not a reason to ratchet up confrontation to the levels of the Cuban Missile Crisis in the 1960s.

Source: Daily Mail February 21, 2019 15:33 UTC