Russia puts last nuclear accord with US on hold

MOSCOW — Russia's President Vladimir Putin has signed a bill formally suspending the last remaining nuclear arms treaty with the United States, amid soaring tensions with Washington over Moscow's military operations in Ukraine.

Putin had declared a week ago in his annual address to the Federal Assembly that Moscow was suspending its participation in the 2010 New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or New START.

He also pointed out the combined strike potential of NATO, because the United Kingdom and France also have nuclear arsenals that pose a threat to Russia.

Russia cannot accept US inspections of its nuclear sites under the pact at a time when Washington and its NATO allies have openly declared Russia's defeat on the battlefield as their goal and that they seek to destroy Russia, he said.

Both houses of Russia's parliament quickly ratified Putin's bill on the pact's suspension last week. On Tuesday Putin signed it into law, effective immediately. The document says it is up to the president to decide whether Moscow could return to the pact.

The New START, the last remaining nuclear arms control treaty in force between the two nuclear superpowers, can be extended by a maximum of five years with the consent of the two countries. Russia and the US officially extended the treaty by five years on Feb 3, 2021.

Putin has emphasized that Moscow is not withdrawing from the pact altogether, and the Russian Foreign Ministry said the country would respect the caps on nuclear weapons set under the treaty and keep notifying the US about test launches of ballistic missiles.

The newspaper Izvestia quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying on Tuesday that the "attitude of the collective West", led by the US needs to change toward Moscow.

"The security of one country cannot be ensured at the expense of the security of another," he said.

By arming Ukraine, NATO "acts as a single bloc no longer as our conditional opponents, but as enemies", he said.

Speaking about a Chinese peace proposal on Ukraine that urges both sides to agree to a gradual de-escalation and warns against the use of nuclear weapons, Peskov said China's voice should be heard.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has said he is open to considering parts of China's 12-point proposal, Reuters reported.

On Monday Bonnie Jenkins, the US undersecretary of state for arms control, criticized Russia for suspending its participation in the treaty, but said Washington will try to work with Moscow to continue its implementation.

The US has not fully assessed the consequences of Russia's suspension move, Jenkins said.

"We're not seeing any evidence that Russia is in noncompliance. We remain ready to work assertively with Russia to fully implement the New START treaty."

Shelling, drone attacks

The treaty, signed by presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev in 2010, limits each country to no more than 1,550 deployed nuclear warheads and 700 deployed missiles and bombers. The agreement envisages sweeping on-site inspections to verify compliance.

Ukraine said on Tuesday that its troops were under mounting pressure in the battered city of Bakhmut in the industrial east.

From Bakhmut, which once had a population of about 70,000, there has been a gradual exodus, and now only 5,000 civilians remain, including about 140 children, the regional governor said last month.

As the fighting raged, Moscow said it had shot down Ukrainian drones targeting civilian sites in Russian territory.

Some drones flew deep inside Russian territory, the Kremlin said, including one that got within 100 kilometers of Moscow, signaling breaches in Russian defenses as Putin ordered stepped-up protection at the border, The Associated Press reported.

Speaking at Russia's main security agency, the FSB, Putin urged the service to tighten security on the Ukraine border.

The drone attacks on Monday night and Tuesday morning targeted regions inside Russia along the border with Ukraine and deeper into the country, local Russian authorities said.

The drones caused no injuries or any significant damage, they said. Ukrainian officials did not immediately take responsibility.

Agencies - Xinhua