Putin gives chilling nuclear weapons warning as he issues new countdown | World | News
Vladimir Putin has warned the end of the last US-Russia pact limiting nuclear weapons could trigger an arms race. The Russian president said on Monday (September 22) that the Kremlin will stick to nuclear arms limits for one more year. He urged the White House to follow suit.
He declared termination of the 2010 deal would be destabilising and could fuel the spread of nuclear weapons. Putin said: “To avoid provoking a further strategic arms race and to ensure an acceptable level of predictability and restraint, we believe it is justified to try to maintain the status quo established by the New START Treaty during the current, rather turbulent period.”
In remarks made on Russian TV, Putin said Moscow is prepared to keep adhering to the central limits of the New START Treaty for one year after February 5 next year, which is when it is due to expire.
The Russian president added: “We believe this measure will only be viable if the United States acts in a similar manner and does not take steps that undermine or disrupt the existing balance of deterrence potentials.”
New START was signed by then US President Barack Obama and his then-Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev. It limits each country to no more than 1,550 deployed nuclear warheads and 700 deployed missiles and bombers.
The pact also envisaged sweeping on-site inspections to check compliance, but they were halted in 2020 because of the Covidpandemic and have not resumed.
In February 2023, Putin suspended Moscow’s participation in the treaty, saying Russia couldn’t allow US inspections of its nuclear sites at a time when Washington and its NATO allies openly declared their goal was to see Russia defeated in its war with Ukraine.
At the same time, Russia has emphasised it wasn’t withdrawing from the pact altogether and pledged to respect the caps on nuclear weapons set under the treaty on top of continuing to notify the US about ballistic missile test launches.
Another US-Russian nuclear arms pact was terminated in 2019. The 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty had banned land-based missiles with a range between 310-3,400 miles (500-5,500km).
Daryl G Kimball, Director of the US-based Arms Control Association, welcomed Putin’s statement on X as “an important and positive move”.
Mr Kimball said earlier this month: “More nuclear weapons will not make anyone safer. By agreeing not to exceed the current strategic nuclear limits, they could reduce tensions, forestall a costly arms race that no one can win, create diplomatic leverage to curb the buildup of China’s arsenal and buy time for talks on a broader, more durable, treaty.”
US President Donald Trump has said he and Putin talked about nuclear weapons during their summit in Alaska in August.
Asked to comment in July on the looming end of New START, Mr Trump noted “that is a big problem for the world, when you take off nuclear restrictions”.
Putin instructed Russian agencies to closely monitor US activity, particularly on its strategic offensive arms, including preparation for US deployment of weapons interceptors in space.
He said: “The practical implementation of such destabilising actions could undermine our efforts to maintain the status quo in the strategic offensive arms sphere.”
He added that in such a case Russia “will respond accordingly”.
He emphasised that Russia‘s honouring of the pact’s limits could support strategic dialogue with the US as long as other efforts were taken to normalise relations between the two countries.
