MOSCOW—Russia will no longer provide advance notice of missile tests as required by a nuclear treaty that the Kremlin has suspended, a senior Moscow diplomat said Wednesday, as the country's military rolled missile launchers across Siberia in a display of the country's massive nuclear capability amid fighting in Ukraine.
According to Russian news outlets, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, Moscow has ceased all intelligence exchanges with Washington under the final surviving nuclear armaments deal with the US, after suspending participation in it last month.
Along with data on the present level of the nations' nuclear capabilities, which is usually disclosed every six months in accordance with the New START deal, the parties have also shared early warnings concerning nuclear weapon test launches and deployments. For decades, such warnings have been a vital component of strategic stability, allowing Russia and the US to accurately assess each other's activities and ensure that neither country misinterprets a test launch as a missile assault.
The suspension of information exchanges under the accord represents yet another attempt by the Kremlin to dissuade the West from increasing its support for Ukraine by using Russia's huge nuclear arsenal. President Vladimir Putin recently announced the deployment of tactical nuclear weapons on the territory of Moscow's ally, Belarus.
Last month, Putin suspended the New START pact, claiming that Russia cannot allow US inspections of its nuclear installations under the deal at a time when Washington and its NATO allies have publicly stated Moscow's defeat in Ukraine as their goal. Russia reiterated that it was not abandoning the deal and would continue to adhere to the treaty's nuclear-weapons limits.
It was unclear whether Ryabkov's comments signaled Moscow's plan to end all missile test warnings or only those specified in the New START deal. During the Cold War, Moscow and Washington have exchanged notices on ballistic missile test launches, and the Foreign Ministry stated last month that Russia will continue to do so in accordance with a 1988 U.S.-Soviet agreement.
Vedant Patel, a deputy spokesperson for the US State Department, said the Biden administration was aware of Ryabkov's remarks but had not "received any information signaling a change."
He went on to say that America has "widespread worries about Russia's irresponsible actions in relation to the New START pact."
Ryabkov's revelation came after US authorities said that Moscow and Washington have ceased exchanging biannual nuclear weapons data as required by the New START pact. According to officials at the White House, Pentagon, and State Department, the US offered to continue sending this information to Russia even after Putin terminated its membership in the pact, but Moscow assured Washington that it would not provide its own data.
The New START Treaty, signed in 2010 by then-Presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev, restricts each country to a maximum of 1,550 deployed nuclear warheads and 700 deployed missiles and bombers. The agreement calls for extensive on-site inspections to ensure compliance.
Because to the COVID-19 epidemic, inspections have been halted since 2020. The talks were expected to resume in November 2022, but Moscow abruptly called them off, citing U.S. backing for Ukraine.
Yars mobile missile launchers will roam throughout three districts of Siberia as part of Russian maneuvers that began on Wednesday, according to Russia's Defense Ministry. According to the ministry, the moves would include steps to disguise the deployment from foreign satellites and other intelligence assets.
