Due to Washington’s attempts to hand Moscow a “strategic defeat” in the Ukraine, Russia today warned that it is “on the edge of a direct confrontation with the US and NATO” and that it is “quite probable” that there won’t be a nuclear weapons control pact with the US beyond 2026.
Sergei Ryabkov, deputy foreign minister, referred to Washington’s decision to provide 31 of its quick-moving M1 Abrams tanks to Kiev as a “very harmful action” that “escalated” the conflict in Ukraine.
Ryabkov asserted that the future of the nuclear arms control treaty between the US and Moscow is in doubt because Washington seems determined to hand Russia a “strategic defeat.”
He cautioned that without a successor, the treaty’s last pillar may expire in 2026.
The 2011 New START Treaty, which was renewed in 2021 through 2026, now limits some of the huge nuclear arsenals that both Russia and the United States still possess.
However, it is unclear what will happen after February 4, 2026, despite the fact that Washington has made it plain it intends to negotiate a follow-up deal with Russia.
When asked if Moscow could envision a post-2026 absence of a nuclear arms control treaty, Ryabkov responded, “This is quite a possible scenario.”
Russia’s senior arms control diplomat, Ryabkov, said that the United States had recently demolished much of the arms control framework while ignoring Russia’s interests.
This could very well be the downfall of New START, Ryabkov warned RIA. We are equipped to handle such a situation.
According to Ryabkov, the START deal intended to establish strategic ties based on the idea of security and “mutual trust.”
But he said that American efforts to resolve the so-called “Russian challenge” by strong containment had “violated these terms in the most crude and cynical fashion.”
This has put Russia on the “verge of a direct conflict between the US and NATO,” Ryabkov said.
He said, “Washington’s anti-Russian policy, which has been toughening year by year and month by month over the last years, has led our ties to this dead end.
“The US position of handing Russia a strategic defeat has held captive the whole security situation, including weapons control.”
“We will vigorously combat this, with all tools and techniques at our disposal.”
His words serve as a warning to Washington that maintaining its military backing for Ukraine might jeopardize the last significant bilateral arms control agreement the two countries signed after the Cold War.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, the United States has provided more than $27 billion in security aid, including more than 1,600 Stinger anti-aircraft rocket systems, 8,500 Javelin anti-tank missile systems, and more than 1 million 155mm artillery rounds.
The U.S. position of handing Russia a strategic defeat has held captive the whole security situation, including weapons control, according to Ryabkov.
“We will fight this with all the tools and techniques at our disposal in the strongest possible manner.”
In November 2022, discussions between the United States and Russia to resume inspections under the New START accord were abruptly canceled. The parties have not settled on a timetable for resuming negotiations.
Together, Russia and the United States still own nearly 90% of the world’s nuclear weapons, despite being restrained by a maze of arms control accords during the Cold War.
In its 2022 Nuclear Posture Review, the US said that Russia and China were developing and modernizing their nuclear arsenals and that Washington will adopt an arms-control-based strategy to prevent expensive arms races.
The New START Treaty restricted the number of warheads that each side may deploy on heavy bombers, submarine ballistic missiles, and intercontinental ballistic missiles. By 2018, the central limitations were fulfilled by both sides.
According to the U.S. Nuclear Posture Review, “Expiration of the Treaty without a Follow-On Agreement would leave Russia free to increase strategic nuclear capabilities that are presently restrained, as well as innovative intercontinental-range and regional systems that are not currently bound by the Treaty.”
The U.S. homeland or allies and partners are put at danger by a number of unique nuclear-capable systems that Russia is exploring, some of which are also exempt from New START’s obligations.
The decision by Washington to provide Kyiv M1 Abrams tanks, according to Ryabkov, was a “very harmful action” that “escalated” the conflict in Ukraine.
From the standpoint of attempting to execute a significant escalation scenario in Ukraine, he stated, “There is no question that this is a tremendously harmful move.”
Ironically, US officials contend that the delivery to Ukraine of a larger variety of more sophisticated weapons, particularly heavy systems, does not constitute an escalation.
He said that it was “irresponsible” for Western countries to provide Ukraine with contemporary combat tanks and that the international community is worried about the direction that western leaders are “driving the globe.”
While Berlin will initially provide at least 14 Leopard 2 tanks and let other NATO nations, such as Poland, Norway, Finland, and Spain to provide their own to Kyiv, Washington is delivering 31 of its quick-moving M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine.
In order to learn how to use the next-generation battle tanks against Russian soldiers, the UK has already announced that it will send 14 Challenger 2 tanks, and Ukrainian troops arrived in Britain on Saturday.
But because it will be months before these tanks arrive, Kyiv will have to continue fighting through the winter in what both sides have called a merciless attritional meat grinder.
Ukraine’s army launched a counterattack in the fall and successfully retook large portions of land after Russia’s forces were depleted by a failed assault on Kyiv the previous year. But since November, that development has stopped, giving Russia the chance to seize the lead once again.
In order to gain time for Russia’s regular military to reassemble battalions with hundreds of thousands of reservists, Moscow’s Wagner mercenary army has thrown thousands of prisoners recruited from Russian jails into fight near Bakhmut.
Zelenskiy said that in order for Ukraine to resume its onslaught, the West must speed up the delivery of the promised weaponry.
“Russia wants the conflict to continue and use all of our resources.” Therefore, time must become our weapon,’ he remarked. “We must… expedite supply and provide Ukraine access to new military choices.”
On Monday, the Kremlin reiterated its position that providing Ukraine with more Western weapons would only fuel the conflict’s escalation.
According to Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, “it leads to NATO nations increasingly being actively engaged in the crisis, but it doesn’t have the capacity to affect the course of events and will not do so.”
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