'Russia is on the verge of direct collision with US and NATO': Moscow
‘Russia is on the verge of direct collision with US and NATO’ and it is ‘very possible’ there will be no arms control treaty with America after 2026, Moscow warns
- Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said US is ‘escalating’ war in Ukraine
- He said Washington’s insistence to inflict ‘strategic defeat’ means future of nuclear nuclear arms control treaty between the US and Moscow is in doubt
Russia today warned it is on the ‘verge of a direct collision with the US and NATO’ and it is ‘very possible’ there will be no nuclear arms control treaty with America after 2026 due to Washington’s efforts to inflict ‘strategic defeat’ on Moscow in Ukraine.
Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Washington’s decision to supply Kyiv with 31 of its fast-moving M1 Abrams tanks was an ‘extremely destructive step’ which ‘escalated’ the war in Ukraine.
Ryabkov claimed Washington’s apparent insistence to inflict ‘strategic defeat’ on Russia means that the future of the nuclear arms control treaty between the US and Moscow is in doubt.
He warned that the last remaining pillar of the treaty could therefore expire in 2026 without a replacement.
Russia today warned it is on the ‘verge of a direct collision with the US and NATO’ and it is ‘very possible’ there will be no nuclear arms control treaty with America after 2026 due to Washington’s efforts to inflict ‘strategic defeat’ on Moscow in Ukraine. Pictured: The launch of a Russian Sarmat missile
Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Washington’s decision to supply Kyiv with 31 of its fast-moving M1 Abrams tanks (pictured) was an ‘extremely destructive step’ which ‘escalated’ the war in Ukraine
Both Russia and the United States still have vast arsenals of nuclear weapons which are currently partially limited by the 2011 New START Treaty, which in 2021 was extended until 2026.
What comes after February 4, 2026, however, is unclear, though Washington has indicated it wants to reach a follow-on agreement with Russia.
Asked if Moscow could envisage there being no nuclear arms control treaty after 2026, Ryabkov told the RIA state new agency: ‘This is quite a possible scenario.’
Ryabkov, Russia’s top arms control diplomat, claimed the United States had in recent years ignored Russia’s interests and dismantled most of the architecture of arms control.
‘New START may well fall victim to this,’ Ryabkov told RIA. ‘We are ready for such a scenario.’
Ryabkov said that the START treaty aimed to strengthen strategic relations based on ‘mutual trust’ and the principle of security.
But he said these provisions have been ‘violated in the most rough and cynical way by American actions at resolving the so-called ‘Russian question’ through aggressive containment.’
Ryabkov warned this has meant Russia is now on the ‘verge of a direct collision between the US and NATO’.
He added: ‘Our relations have been brought to this dead end by Washington’s anti-Russian line, which has been toughening year by year and month by month over the past years.
Ryabkov said Washington’s apparent insistence to inflict ‘strategic defeat’ on Russia means that the future of the nuclear arms control treaty between the US and Moscow is in doubt
‘The entire security situation, including arms control, has been held hostage by the US line of inflicting a strategic defeat on Russia.
‘We will oppose this in the most resolute way, using all the methods and means at our disposal.’
His remarks constitute a warning to Washington that its continued military support for Ukraine could scupper the final major post-Cold War bilateral arms control treaty with Russia.
The United States has supplied more than $27 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since Russia invaded the country on Feb. 24, including over 1,600 Stinger anti-aircraft rocket systems, 8,500 Javelin anti-tank missile systems and over 1 million 155mm artillery rounds.
‘The entire situation in the sphere of security, including arms control, has been held hostage by the U.S. line of inflicting strategic defeat on Russia,’ Ryabkov said.
‘We will resist this in the strongest possible way using all the methods and means at our disposal.’
U.S.-Russia talks on resuming inspections under the New START treaty were called off at the last minute in November 2022. The sides have not agreed on a time frame for new talks.
A view of the ‘Grad’ artillery battery as it fires, in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine, on Sunday
READ MORE: How US Abrams, Germany’s Leopard 2 and US’s Challenger compare to Russia’s outdated tanks
Russia and the United States, which during the Cold War were constrained by a tangle of arms control agreements, still account together for about 90% of the world’s nuclear warheads.
The United States said in its 2022 Nuclear Posture Review that Russia and China were expanding and modernising their nuclear forces, and that Washington would pursue an approach based on arms control to head off costly arms races.
The New START Treaty limited both sides to 1,550 warheads on deployed intercontinental ballistic missiles, submarine ballistic missiles and heavy bombers. Both sides met the central limits by 2018.
‘Expiration of the Treaty without a follow-on agreement would leave Russia free to expand strategic nuclear forces that are now constrained, as well as novel intercontinental-range and regional systems that are not currently limited by the Treaty,’ according to the U.S. Nuclear Posture Review.
‘Russia is pursuing several novel nuclear-capable systems designed to hold the U.S. homeland or Allies and partners at risk, some of which are also not accountable under New START.’
Meanwhile, Ryabkov said Washington’s decision to supply Kyiv with M1 Abrams tanks was an ‘extremely destructive step’ which ‘escalated’ the war in Ukraine.
‘There is no doubt that this is an extremely destructive step from the point of view of an attempt to implement a pronounced escalation scenario in Ukraine,’ he said.
‘Paradoxically, US officials argue that deliveries of a wider range of increasingly advanced systems, including heavy systems to Ukraine, are not an escalation.’
He claimed the decision by Western nations to supply Ukraine with modern battle tanks was ‘irresponsible’, adding that the international community is concerned about where western politicians were ‘pushing the world’.
Washington is sending 31 of its fast-moving M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine, while Berlin will initially supply at least 14 Leopard 2 tanks and give permission to other NATO countries – including Poland, Norway, Finland and Spain – to deliver their own to Kyiv.
The UK has already said it will send 14 Challenger 2 tanks and Ukrainian troops on Saturday landed in Britain to learn how to use the next-generation battle tanks against Russian soldiers.
But delivery of these tanks is months away, leaving Kyiv to fight on through the winter in what both sides have described as a meat grinder of relentless attritional warfare.
After Russia exhausted its military with a failed assault on Kyiv last year, Ukraine’s forces counter-attacked and recaptured swathes of territory in the autumn. But that advance has stalled since November, allowing Russia to retake the initiative.
Moscow’s Wagner mercenary force has sent thousands of convicts recruited from Russian prisons into battle around Bakhmut, buying time for Russia’s regular military to reconstitute units with hundreds of thousands of reservists.
Zelenskiy said the West must hasten the delivery of its promised weapons so that Ukraine could go back on the offensive.
‘Russia wants the war to drag on and exhaust our forces. So we have to make time our weapon,’ he said. ‘We have to… speed up supplies and open up new weapons options for Ukraine.’
The Kremlin reaffirmed its stance on Monday that further supplies of Western weaponry to Ukraine would only lead to further escalation.
‘It leads to NATO countries more and more becoming directly involved in the conflict – but it doesn’t have the potential to change the course of events and will not do so,’ Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
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