Russia Steps Out Of Agreement With US Over Nuclear Weapon

Russian President Vladimir Putin addressed the Federal Assembly and members of the country’s political elite and announced that Russia has halted its participation in the New START deal on Monday, February 21.

The size and makeup of the U.S. and Russian nuclear arsenals are constrained by the nuclear weapons reduction deal that the two countries signed in Prague in 2010. With over 6000 nuclear warheads between them, Russia and the US have the largest nuclear arsenal in the world. As a result of the Kremlin’s suspension, “arms control” is the only agreement that exists between them.

Putin stated that Russia would not permit the United States or NATO to inspect its nuclear weapons and added that a week prior, he had signed a decree placing new strategic ground-based nuclear missile systems on active service. In addition, Putin stated that Russia would conduct nuclear weapons testing if the United States did so.

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The declaration is the latest in a series of nuclear threats issued by Russia since it started its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Putin also threatened that “the more long-range Western systems will come to Ukraine, the further we will be forced to move the threat away from our borders.”

Ukraine has requested long-range missile weapons from the West so that it can strike Russian military sites far behind the front line. However, due to its concern that Ukraine will launch an attack on Russian territory, the West has been hesitant to provide such weaponry thus far.

Putin said in his speech that “the goal of the West is to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia, to end us once and for all. We will respond accordingly because we are talking about the existence of our country.”

Putin claimed that despite the Western sanctions, Russia has not needed to turn to its partners for financial assistance.

Putin hailed the Russian servicemen engaged in the war in Ukraine and said he wanted to “bow down” to their families and all those contributing to the military effort. Soldiers, excluding travel time, would have “regular vacation of at least 14 days at least once every six months,” he continued.

As of February 21, 2023, Russia had lost more than 144,000 men in Ukraine, according to the General Command of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.