Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday offered the US a one-year extension of New START, the last remaining nuclear arms control treaty between the US and Russia, which is set to expire in February 2026.
The New START treaty limits the number of nuclear warheads and delivery systems the two powers can deploy, and Putin said that Russia would abide by those limits if the US reciprocates. If the treaty expires without an extension or replacement, there will no longer be any constraints on the deployment of US and Russian nuclear weapons.
“The New START Treaty will expire on February 5, 2026, signaling the imminent end of the last international accord directly limiting nuclear missile capabilities. A complete renunciation of this treaty’s legacy would, from many points, be a grave and short-sighted mistake,” Putin said ahead of a meeting of his Security Council, according to RT.
In 2023, Russia said it was suspending participation in New START, citing US support for Ukrainian attacks on Russian facilities housing nuclear weapons. However, both the US and Russia stated that they would continue to abide by the limits set by the treaty, and Putin has now offered to extend that arrangement to facilitate further diplomacy.
“In order to prevent the emergence of a new strategic arms race and to preserve an acceptable degree of predictability and restraint, we consider it reasonable to maintain at this turbulent time the status quo established under New START. Accordingly, Russia is prepared to continue observing the treaty’s central quantitative restrictions for one year after February 5, 2026,” he added.
Putin said he ordered Russian agencies to “maintain close oversight of American activities related to the START arsenal.” He called for a focus on “US plans to expand strategic components of its missile defense system, including preparations for the deployment of interceptors in outer space,” referring to President Trump’s plan to establish a major new missile defense system for the US, dubbed the Golden Dome. Russia has previously warned that the missile defense project could start a new arms race.
“We believe that the practical implementation of such destabilizing measures could nullify our efforts to maintain the status quo in the field of strategic offensive arms. We will respond appropriately in this case,” Putin said.
Arms control between the US and Russia has collapsed over the past few decades as the US has unilaterally withdrawn from several treaties, including the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, which the US left in 2019. Russia recently announced that it is no longer bound by a self-imposed moratorium on the deployment of INF missiles, as the US has developed and deployed a new missile system that would have been banned by the treaty.
