FALLOUT: Putin Halts Nuke Pact With US, Vows to Push War in Ukraine.

President Vladimir Putin said Russia will suspend its observation of the New START treaty with the US, dealing a blow to the last accord limiting their nuclear arsenals, as he vowed to press on with his faltering invasion of Ukraine.

Russia is fighting for its “historic lands” in Ukraine and “will fulfill the tasks set step-by-step, carefully and consistently,” Putin told the Russian parliament and top officials in Moscow on Tuesday. Russia won’t be the first to resume testing of nuclear weapons as a result of its suspension of New START, though it will do so in response to any US test, he said. 

US President Joe Biden extended the nuclear treaty by five years to 2026 as one of his first acts upon taking office in 2021 shortly before it was due to expire, after Putin had pressed his predecessor Donald Trump without success to agree to a deal. The US and its NATO allies “want to inflict a strategic defeat on us and crawl into our nuclear facilities” by demanding inspections under the treaty, Putin said, describing the requests as absurd.

Trust is broken, verification is out, China is engaged in a strategic breakout — there isn’t anything left of nuclear arms control except for the testing ban.