Putin Freezes Participation In START Nuclear Pact With U.S.

Russian President Vladimir Putin suspended Moscow’s participation in the last remaining nuclear arms control pact with the US, announcing the move Tuesday in a bitter speech where he made clear he would not change his strategy in the war in Ukraine.

Photo Insert: The START Treaty, signed by then-US President Barrack Obama and Russian counterpart, Dmitry Medvedev, limits each country to no more than 1,550 deployed nuclear warheads and 700 deployed missiles and bombers.

In his long-delayed state-of-the-nation address, Putin cast his country — and Ukraine — as victims of Western double-dealing and said it was Russia, not Ukraine, fighting for its very existence, the Associated Press (AP) reported on Feb. 21, 2023.

“We aren’t fighting the Ukrainian people,” Putin said in a speech days before the war’s first anniversary on Friday. “The Ukrainian people have become hostages of the Kyiv regime and its Western masters, which have effectively occupied the country.”

The speech reiterated a litany of grievances that the Russian leader has frequently offered as justification for the widely condemned military campaign while vowing no military let-up in a conflict that has reawakened fears of a new Cold War.

On top of that, Putin sharply upped the ante by declaring that Moscow would suspend its participation in the so-called New START Treaty.

The pact, signed in 2010 by the US and Russia, caps the number of long-range nuclear warheads the two sides can deploy and limits the use of missiles that can carry atomic weapons.

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